Sparky
by LostSparrow
Summary: Cato and Katniss survived the 74th Hunger Games. They thought that they would be safer after they won, but they soon find out they will be forced back into the arena and have to be face to face with death once again. Eventual Catoniss!
1. Chapter 1

_**Hi there you lovely readers :) So I think I might make this into a mulit-chapter fic. I want to explore the idea of what would happen if Cato was in the Quarter Quell ;) please leave a review of what you think! Have a lovely day. **_

When he was trapped on the roof of the Cornucopia, with warm blood streaming down his face and filling his mouth, and the girl on fire aiming an arrow at his face; Cato had never expected to survive the 74th Hunger Games. Both their District partners were long dead. Clove was killed by Marvel a few days ago, who in turn was slaughtered by Thresh. Katniss's partner, Peeta, was killed by Cato personally at the beginning of the Games. Cato knew the "star-crossed lovers" bullshit was just that; bullshit. He knew that Katniss wasn't in love with the kid, and sure she felt bad he died but she'd get over it in a month or two.

"Too bad the rule was only for two district partners, hey sparky?" he says, letting out a soft snigger at the nickname her threw in at the end of the sentence. Katniss stares at him like he's absolutely insane.

"What the hell...?"

"You heard me. You remember that rule, right? It was because Clove was still alive and so was Glimmer and Marvel. I'm sure the fucking Capitol ate it up! I bet they even had shirts made with our faces plastered over them!" he shouts at her. She pulls the arrow back even further and glares at him.

"Calm down!" she screams at him. He's trembling, whether it's from anger or loss of blood, she doesn't know. The mutts beneath them are growling and jumping at the building, their sharp claw digging at the metal. So far, they haven't been able to get up, but then she hears a ferocious growl and one of the Mutts, the biggest one, Thresh by the looks of it, runs back then throws himself into the air and lands on the roof on its back. It writhes and jumps back on to its legs and growls at them. It takes him a moment to decide who to attack, but then it hurls itself at the closest human; Katniss. She tries to shoot it with an arrow but it just bounces off the Mutt like it was a mere stick. The Mutt jumps on her and knocks her to the ground, its weight crushing her.

Cato was watching and is debating leaving her to get mauled to death by that Mutt... But then that small sliver of humanity that his mentors have tried to extinguish for so many years flares up and his feet move before his mind tells them to. He uses all his strength and throws his full weight against the Mutt, and the force makes it fly off Katniss. She's choking and rolls over, reaching for her bow with a quivering hand. Cato is wrestling with the Mutt, she can hear the angry snarls coming from both he and the Mutt. She takes her bow and one of the two arrows she has left in her quiver. She loads it and aims at the Mutt's head.

"Cato, move!" she screams. He looks at her and nods, throwing himself off the Mutt and lands with a hard thud on the metal.

Katniss releases the arrow and it goes flying through the air and lands in the Mutt's neck. This time, it drops dead. Cato and Katniss breathe out slowly and she goes over to help and extends her hand to help him up. He takes it, but nearly pulls her over in the process. They both stands quickly, red filling their cheeks.

"Thanks for that." he mutters.

"I should be the one thanking you." She responds. They don't speak for a few moments; both waiting for the other to try to kill them, but eventually Cato breaks the silence.

"I'm not going to be one of them."

"What?" she asks, surprised at his remark.

"You heard me. I'm not going to be one of their killers," he says. By now, Katniss is sure he's delusional from blood loss. She's staring at him with wide eyes. "I'm serious. Ever since I was a kid, I was told I'd have to win and bring pride to my district. If I was weak, I was punished." He says, his voice considerably softer. Katniss examines him, noticing that his coat has been ripped off by a Mutt. His bare arms reveal several faint scars that look like they've been made by knives. So maybe he wasn't lying... Maybe he was punished if he was ever considered to be weak.

"What will we do?" Katniss asks him, still studying the scars on his arms.

"I won't fight you. You can kill me, if you want to get out of here." He answers.

_Yep, he's fucking lost it, _is the only thing going through her mind.

Cato smirks at her, but then he begins to sway slightly on his feet. Katniss inadvertently reaches out and clutches his arm to steady him. But then his head snaps up and he slaps her hand away. His eyes are stormy.

"Don't fucking touch me you stupid rat!" He shouts at her. She jumps back and takes her last arrow and aims it at him. Yep, he's lost it.

Cato circles her, like a dangerous predator hunting its prey. His lips are curled up and the blood is making his face shine red. He looks completely insane.

"Cato, stop it!" she screams at him. "A minute ago you were ready to give up! You said you didn't want to be one of them!"

Cato has stopped moving but now he's gripping his head with his hands. He's doubled over and a loud scream rips from his throat. He looks like he's in... Pain.

"Listen to me, you've lost a lot of blood and you're not in your right mind right now. Please calm down," she whispers. Cato has dropped to his knees, but has stopped screaming. Katniss hesitantly walks towards him, her fingers just grazing his shoulder. When he doesn't respond, she kneels down and, with her other hand; she takes hold of his wrist. He's is staring straight ahead, but his blue eyes are out of focus. He slumps down, his head landing on her shoulder. His eyes are closed and his breathing is ragged.

"Cato? Wake up!" she says, shaking his shoulder in feeble attempts to wake the giant. She swallows and looks up at the sky. Where her next words come from, she doesn't know. She never felt anything towards the tall blond boy beside her, but she doesn't want to be one of their killers either. She won't kill a helpless, sick boy because that's what they expect her to do. She knows that Prim is watching... But she also knows that Prim would want her to do this and not become a mindless killer like many of the other victors. She's just so angry at... everything! She's angry at the Capitol for taking her away from her home, for taking the lives of twenty two other people. She's mad at her father for dying, her mother for shutting down after his death. She won't do that. No, she won't kill this boy, and then become some mindless Victor who watches their tributes die every single year. If the Capitol won't do something right, for once, then she won't be their Victor. Not without him at least.

She looks up at the sky and lets out all her anger and pain that has welled up inside her over the years. When she releases her words, she shouts with everything she has in her.

"He could've come out of here! If he dies, then I'm going to die too. If you don't save both of us, you won't have any victor at all!" she screams. She waits a few moments, but when nothing happens, she begins to reach for the knife that was stuck in Cato's boot. However, something else catches her eye. Berries, dark black berries. Nightlock berries, like the one she found when Foxface died. They're poisonous and will kill you in a second. The berries had been shoved in his pocket, he must have gathered them earlier, maybe in his deranged state or perhaps he thought they could be useful. She takes some of the berries and raises them to her lips. She looks around, waiting for something to happen. But nothing does.

"If you think I'm kidding, then you are so fucking wrong." She snarls. She opens her mouth, and pops some berries in. They taste bitter. She's about to swallow when she hears the loud voice of Claudius Templesmith erupt from the speakers.

"Stop, stop! Ladies and gentleman, please let me introduce the victors of the of the 74th annual Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen and Cato Hansen."

That was almost a year ago, when Katniss and Cato won the games. Cato doesn't remember it, obviously, because he was practically dead. The Capitol was able to save him, though. After they came out, Katniss and Cato quickly realized that their life was soon to become very, very hard. President Snow was mad at them, he thinks that what they did was an act of "rebellion". Their Districts hated them. Well, Twelve didn't exactly hate Katniss. They just can't fathom why she would side with a ruthless killer who was so different from them. No one would ever say it, but she could practically feel their anger and disappointment. As for Two, well they were ashamed that Cato would even associated with a skinny little rat from Twelve.

So they stayed in their homes in the Victor's Village. Of course, neither of them could leave their Districts for no reason. So, Cato had to deal with the disgusted looks of the people of District Two. Katniss had it a bit easier though. Only Haymitch was in the Victor's Village, and while he was initially mad that she went with one of the careers, he got over it after a few whiskey's.

Now that the Victory Tour is over, Cato and Katniss have no way of seeing each other until the next games; when they'll be mentors. They can still talk to each other on the phone, but it's not the same. Nothing happened between them, they never kissed or showed any romantic affection towards each other in any way. The reason they like talking and being together is because they both feel... Alone. Unwanted. But when they're together, they don't feel so lonely.

Cato sits on the plush sofa in his living room. The projection of the screen is showing Snow's wrinkled face. A year has gone by and now it's time for the Games once again. He's thrilled he won't have to go back into the arena, because they don't tell you what it's really like. They don't tell you how it feels to lose your friends and see their blood soaking the grass.

Cato is forced out of his thoughts and back to reality when he hears the President's words.

"This is the 75th year of the Hunger Games. In the honor of this momentous occasion, this Quarter Quell, the tributes for the games are to be reaped on the existing pool of victors."

Cato's mouth pops open, as if he wants to scream at this man; to release all his anger at the prospect of being forced back into that damn arena. However, no words come out. His mouth flutters shut and he grips the cushions of the sofa he's sitting on. He thinks of Katniss and wonders what she's doing now. Than realization slams down on him. She's the only female victor of District Twelve. She'll have to go in. So, he makes a decision, right then and there. If she is to go back in; then so will he. He will not leave her to face this battle alone.


	2. Chapter 2

Cato stands on the stage, waiting as their District escort rambles on and on about the glory of the games, the honor of them...

Last year, those words meant the world to him. This year; they're nothing more than horse shit.

Beside him, the three other male Victors are scowling at him. Brutus was snarling at him, his blue eyes stormy with hate. Cato's pretty sure that Brutus has lost his mind many years ago.

"The female tribute for District 2 is Savera Lowenek!"

Cato's head snaps up and he sees Savera flip her golden hair and smile, her white teeth jumping against her ruby-red lips. She begins to make her way to join the escort, but then a sharp voice forces her to stop.

"I volunteer!" Enobaria shouts. She steps forwards, shoving a very pissed off Savera out of the way. Enobaria is wearing a golden dress that hugs her slim figure and her dark hair is hanging down her back in curls. She takes her place and lets out a startling war cry, which makes the crowd erupt in applause. The escort tries her best to calm them down and moves on to the male tribute.

_Please, please not me. They'll volunteer for me if I'm chosen. Please let it not be me, _Cato thinks as the escort reaches into the bowl. She fishes out a piece of paper and opens it, but then smiles and scans the crowd, making them jump and start screaming at her to read it.

"The male tribute is Brutus Willif-"

"I volunteer as tribute!" Cato shouts before she can finish her sentence. Brutus lets out a startlingly loud scream and looks like he wants to rip Cato to shreds, but Cato pays him no mind and instead just shoves him out of the way to join Enobaria and the escort. She glares at him as he stands beside her and bares her fangs.

"You're not one of us." She hisses.

"I don't want to be," he responds, his voice seeping with anger. Their icy blue and dark brown eyes lock on to each other, almost as if they're daring the other to make a move. But eventually have to break away when the escort begins to lead them to the train. Before stepping on, Enobaria swings around and slams her hand into Cato's chest, completely stopping him from entering the train.

"You won't be welcome with the career's this year, Cato." She snarls, baring her fangs once again.

"Try to listen closely," he whispers, leaning down and pressing his lips to the sensitive skin of her ear. A shiver ripples through her body. "I said before; I don't want to be. So if you think that saying this will threaten me or frighten me, than you're as much of an idiot as that escort." He finishes than shoves his old mentor out of the way, and due to his strength, he almost makes her topple over. She snarls again at him and he knows that he's going to be number one on her kill list once they get into the arena.

* * *

Katniss and Haymitch sit on the train; Haymitch is drinking while Katniss stares at the ornate lamp fixture opposite them. Being the only two Victors, they had to go as tributes, they had no other choice. They still haven't said a word to each other about the situation and Katniss doubts they will until they arrive at the Capitol tonight.

They hear the clicking of heels and Effie's high-pitched voice follows. She sits in the plush chair opposite them and lifts her chin high, taking a deep breath and forces a smile.

"So we'll be arriving at the Capitol right on schedule. Now, everything will be different about the games simply because it's the Quarter Quell. The Capitol has spared no cost; even building a brand new training center..."

Katniss knows she should be listening, but she tunes Effie out and focuses on the lamp once again. Haymitch will tell her all this stuff later tonight and she doesn't want to listen to Effie's voice at the moment. She still can't believe Commander Thread wouldn't let her say goodbye to her family. This year, she's going up against Victor's who have all killed before and many will be itching to kill again. There's a thousand to one chance that she'll be getting out of this and they couldn't have the decency to let her say goodbye her loved ones? Her fists ball together as anger and hatred for these disgusting people makes her blood boil. Haymitch glances over and places a hand on her shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze. She lets out a small smile and slowly releases her first, noticing the small, red, crescent-shaped marks that her nails left on her palm.

There's only one consolation to her about going to the Capitol; she gets to see her friend, Cato.

When they arrive at the Capitol, Katniss has to half carry Haymitch to his room before dumping him on the bed. He lets out a weird sort of groan and she rolls him on his side in case he vomits. She sighs and brushes some of the dirty blonde hair from his eyes.

"What have they done to us?" she says quietly. She knows he won't answer, so she stands up and begins to make her way out, but before walking she looks over the side of the bed and, in his grubby hand, sees a half empty bottle of spirits he was drinking from. She grabs it so that he won't drink it tomorrow before they have a chance to talk about what their plan will be. She walks out, flicking off the lights as she does so. She'll come back and check on him in a few hours.

She goes out into the large living room, intent on finding something to eat and throws out the bottle of spirits as she does so. She snoops around for a while until an Avox arrives and looks at her curiously.

"Can I have some food please? Some lamb stew and grain?" she asks. She's in the mood for something familiar tonight. The Avox nods and disappears, as silent as a mouse.

Effie has gone to bed by now so it's just her in the living room. She sits on the soft couch and eagerly awaits the Avox's return. It returns soon with a steaming bowl of grain and stew as well as a glass of water. The Avox places it on the table in front of her, nods and then goes to stand silently in a corner. Katniss nods her thanks and tucks into the meal, consuming half of it in two minutes. It's spicier than last time, which must be why the Avox brought water for her. She chugs down the water and then continues on eating. She's about to lift another bite to her lips, but a knock at the door interrupts her. She wrinkles her brows, who could be knocking at this time in the night? She drops her fork, annoyed at the interruption but makes her way to the door regardless. She opens it and lets out a relieved sigh at the sight greeting her.

"Cato," she breathes. He offers her a small smile and opens his arms and she doesn't hesitate in wrapping her arms around his chest. Being in his arms is as comforting as when she used to hug Gale like this. Gale, however, smelt different. He smelt like the woods, like the coal from the minds. Cato doesn't smell like that. He has strong cologne on which makes him smell sweet and spicy and comforting to her.

"How are you?" he asks as he retracts his arms from around her body.

"Oh, I'm was just swell. How are you?" she asks. He smirks at her, his icy blue eyes twinkling.

"I'm the same. Listen, I have to go back because Enobaria will notice and she'll have both our heads. I'll talk to you tomorrow," he says. He kisses her quickly on the head, much to her surprise. She doesn't mind though, at least it wasn't on the lips because she probably would've tasted like lamb stew and that would've just been weird. Cato smirks at her once again and then disappears down the hallway. Katniss runs back and wolfs down the rest of the food, then makes her way to bed. She knows Effie will be waking her up extra early tomorrow. She pulls off her clothes and drops them in a heap on the floor. She goes to the dresser and searches in it until she finds something to her liking; which is just a sleeveless grey shirt and black cloth pants. She changes into them and quickly climbs into bed; ready to try to sleep and forget about the horrors of the day.

Her night is restless as she dreams about dead kids and sharp spears. It seems she only shut her eyes for ten minutes before Effie's loud voice forces her to jolt awake.

"Katniss! Wake up; it's a big, big day!"

Katniss rolls over and covers her ears with a pillow, trying her best to block out Effie's voice, but then Effie suddenly appears in front of her and rips the pillow off her and shakes her shoulder, making Katniss release a growl.

"Cinna needs you! It's the day of the Tribute Parade and it's time to make you look decent now get up!"

* * *

Cato sits in the chair in front of his stylist, as they ponder what to dress him in. It's a mix between suit, armor like last year and simply grey underwear which is supposed to represent stone but he knows the real reason is to show his entire body. He hopes to God they don't choose that one. It takes some bickering and a glare from Cato to finally decide on the grey, stony armor. Enobaria looks fierce in hers, despite the tunic she's wearing barley covers her bottom. It does however reveal her long legs, which will make some sponsors go crazy for her. Cato's leaves his back completely exposed, which hopefully works in his favor for getting sponsors himself.

Their stylists scurry around them, giving a last sweep of black makeup on Enobaria's eye, dousing Cato in cologne and then they reveal their finishing touches; a hair pin and a necklace. They twist Enobaria's hair into a bun, and then use the grey gemstone hair clip to make it stay. They give Cato the matching gemstone necklace on a long silver chain. They want to try to show the sponsors that Cato and Enobaria are united, even though many already know that's complete bullshit.

The stylist's do a final inspection of the two tributes, and they can barely contain their joy and pride at their excellent work. They give them their approval and the two are quickly ushered out to the awaiting horses.

Cato scans the crowd of Victors, and even he must admit most of them look really good. He sees Finnick Odair saunter over to Katniss, a cheeky grin plastered on his face and a sugar cube in his fingers. To his left, he sees Johanna Mason yelling at her stylist, clearly upset with what they put her in.

He sighs and shakes his head; he finds the Victors behavior odd.

"You seem disappointed."

He jumps at the sound of the silky voice behind him. He turns around and is greeted by Syra Jardine of District 9. She won the 69th Hunger Games and has been a Capitol darling ever since. Cato can't blame them; she's truly a stunning human being. She has ivory skin, pale blue eyes and thick black hair. She has her head tilted and a smile on her pale lips. She's wearing barely anything on her chest, only a few beaded necklaces that have been strategically placed to hide the front of her breasts. Her skirt is fashioned out of beige material that resembles grain stalks and has a large slit running the length of her leg and Cato can barely manage to tear his eyes away from the soft looking skin.

"I said you seemed disappointed. Aren't we pleasing to you?" she asks, her voice dripping with silk. Her eyes travel up and down his body and she's clearly impressed by what she sees. She takes a step closer to him, until she's pressed against his broad chest. He doesn't really know what to say or even do for that matter, what does one say when they have a Victor pressed against their chest...?

Syra goes on the tip of her toes and presses her lips to his ear, making the delicate skin under his ear erupt with goose bumps.

"I know we're not what you thought, but do not be so quick to pass judgement on us... despite what you have seen or heard," she whispers. Then, with that, she just gathers the hem of her skirt in her hand and walks away as if nothing had occurred between them. Cato just stares at her with a look of pure confusion. Yeah... These Victors are really weird.

"What was that about?"

Cato glances at Katniss who had managed to come up beside him without his noticing. Well of course he didn't notice, not after what happened with Syra. Katniss looks a little annoyed, to Cato's overwhelming pleasure.

"Is someone a little jealous?" he asks, laughing at her immediate response of punching him in the shoulder.

"I am not at all! I was just wondering what she was doing- oh, never mind!" she grumbles, frustrated at the tall boy beside her. Cato smirks again; he loves how easy it is to tease her. Though soon those playful feelings are gone as he notices how striking she looks in the tight fitted black dress that her stylist has chosen. It has a low neckline and hugs her body all the way to her ankles. Her hair is braided over her shoulder and there's black makeup around her eyes, almost in a feather like design with hints of gold. She's definitely the most beautiful tribute there.

"What?" she asks when she finally notices him observing her.

"You're looking good, Sparky. Though I hope your partner isn't in the same get-up." He says and she snorts as a reply.

"He looks better than you do, 2. I'll see you after the parade." She says and walks to join Haymitch. He smirks again, but that falls as soon as he sees Enobaria approaching him. She's glaring at him, which is all she seems to do these days.

* * *

That night, Cato stands in the shower, trying his best to scrub away the overwhelming smell of the cologne they dumped on him earlier. He hates this stuff, and they knew that fucking well. He's convinced they did it just to piss him off. The parade went as well as can be expected. No one fell of their chariots and Katniss and Haymitch's costumes went up in flames as they rode through the Capitol. All eyes were on them, of course they would be. After that, Cato managed to leave his annoying stylist and head back to his rooms- but he ran into a naked Johanna Mason on the way there. He didn't even bother to question it.

It takes him nearly an hour to finally get rid of the smell, but his skin is now tingling and red from the rough scrubbing. He grabs a fluffy white towel, wrapping it around his waist before going back into his room. He was thinking of going and visiting Katniss again, like he did last night, but he nearly jumps out of that towel when he sees who's lying on his bed. It's Syra, the District 9 tribute. She's wearing nothing but sheer white night-gown that reveals every single inch of her bare body underneath.

"How the fuck did you get in here?" he asks, rather alarmed that she could get in here so easily. She sits up, flicking her hair off her shoulder and looking at him with wide, innocent eyes.

"We may only have a few days left to live, Cato, but that doesn't mean we have to be alone," she says quietly. Cato considers this, and eventually realizes she's right. He's not going to get this from anyone else... So why shouldn't they? They don't want to be alone. He realizes his feet have been moving and he has reached the bed. He has Syra's face cupped in his large hands. Her breathing is quick, and she seems unsure for a second.

"Are you sure you want this?" he asks her, his voice hushed.

"Yes." She answers and then their lips crash together.

* * *

The next morning, Katniss sits with Haymtich as he tries to ease his hangover with food and water. She hands him a jar of marmalade and piece of toast to add to his plate.

"So there were no nightly visitors last night?" he mutters as he rips off a chunk of toast.

"No, actually there wasn't." She responds, already annoyed with him. She does, though, find it odd that Cato didn't come to visit her last night. Oh well, she's sure he had a perfectly good explanation.

"Katniss, we need to talk about something." Haymitch says between bites of sausage.

She looks up at him, suspicion clouding her grey eyes. She swallows her mouthful of potatoes and gestures for him to continue.

"Allies."

"Not a-"

"Will you shut up for one second and listen to me?! You think you can actually take these people by yourself? I knew you were stupid, but I didn't think you were this stupid." He grumbles and takes another bite of sausage.

"Fine. Who were you thinking of?" she asks. Haymitch seems shocked that she actually agreed.

"Finnick maybe and-"

"Cato." She interrupts and Haymitch sighs.

"Oh, of course we'll have your boyfriend there."

"He's not my boyfriend, but yes I want him. And you can have Finnick, there is that a good compromise?" she spits out and quickly stands, shoving her plate of food away.

"You know, for a second, you actually seemed agreeable. I thought you had taken your happy pills!" He shouts at her as she walks out.

"Fuck off! And get changed, we have training in half an hour." She snaps back at him, which causes him to smirk. He takes another bite of toast then stands, wiping his greasy hair out of his eyes with equally greasy fingers. As he walks to his room to get ready for another day of hell, he ponders over her words. He knows Finnick wants to be allies, they discussed this last night after the parade. But no matter what Katniss says about him; he won't ever trust that District 2 kid. And he's scared that he'll stab Katniss in the back; literally.


	3. Chapter 3

Cato easily slices through the orange holographic man with his sword, cutting it in two at its midsection and causing it to tumble to the ground in a mess of bright blocks. He likes this new training technology; it's far more advanced than what they had last year.

His session is at an end so he returns his sword and begins walking to lunch, but someone grabs his hand and hauls him to a stop. He swings around and is greeted by none other than Katniss. Her hair is in its usual braid and she looks worried. Cato looks down at her palm and notices that she has some red, sore looking scrapes on her on her hands. He gingerly takes her hand in his, examining it and raises an eyebrow.

"What happened to you?" he asks as he runs his finger over the red blotches, brushing a drop of blood away as he does so.

"I tried to make one of the fishing hooks they have in District 4, but they're a lot more complicated than I thought they would be." she says. He can see the blush forming in her cheeks, most likely from embarrassment.

"Don't worry about it, Kat. It happens to the best of us." He says softly. She's surprised at the sudden tenderness in his voice, something he's never really showed before. Even to her, his friend, he always tries to come off as cocky and arrogant and uncaring. It often works, but not this time. He seems generally... concerned. It's unusual coming from him.

"Are you feeling alright?" she asks, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Yeah I'm fine, why?" He responds, looking up to meet her grey irises.

"You seem nicer than usual, it's kind of freaking me out a bit," She answers. He snorts and drops her hand. "By the way, I thought you were going to come and visit last night. Where were you?" she asks.

Cato tenses and immediately bites his lips. "Ugh, I got... Held up with something, I'm sorry. Let's go get something to eat," he says quickly and grabs her arm and begins towing her out of the training center. She stares at him with confusion; is he nervous about something? What could he possibly be nervous about?

As Cato walks, he prays that he doesn't see Syra. But as they near the door, he sees her to Johanna. He grimaces at the sight of her; the results of their love-making are brutally obvious. Love bites litter her neck and chest, and the white of her skin make the black and purple bruises crystal clear. He can see that she even has a slight limp. She catches him staring and he quickly looks at the floor, red now filling his cheeks.

"Oh fuck," he mumbles.

"What was that?" Katniss asks from behind him.

"Nothing. Hurry up, I'm starving." He responds and quickly makes his way to the door, leaving Syra and the memories of last night behind him.

* * *

Katniss watches as Cashmere swiftly battles one of the holograms, hitting it in the head with a dagger and causing it to tumble to the floor. A shiver runs through Katniss because, with her long blond hair and emerald eyes... She reminds Katniss too much of Glimmer. Images of Glimmer's mutilated, swollen dead body fills her mind and Katniss squeezes her eyes shut, desperately trying to block out the gruesome images, but soon those are joined by memories of killing Marvel, Rue holding the wildflowers in attempt to hide the hole in her stomach and Foxface who got mauled to death by Mutts. It soon becomes too much for Katniss and she runs out of the training center, running as fast and hard as she can. She doesn't stop until she crashes into a wall which causes her to fall to the ground. She's covering her eyes with her hands, trying so hard to block those horrible images in her mind but it's all in futile attempt.

Haymitch had seen Katniss run out of this damn place like it was on fire. He was about to go after her, but Cato had beaten him to it. Cato quickly finds her, crumpled on the floor and tears streaming down her cheeks. He kneels down and takes her hands off her face. She sees him, but her grey eyes are so wild she doesn't even recognize him.

"Sparky, calm down! Listen to me, you're safe! You're with me, alright? You're here with me now, everything's alright now!" he shouts, trying to get through to the wild girl. The words finally register with her and she lets out some deep breaths; clutching Cato's forearms so tightly she's starting to cut off the circulation.

"You're alright, you're alright now," he whispers as she slumps forwards, her face buried in his chest.

He knows that the words he's telling her are all lies; they'll never truly been alright. Not after what they've been forced to do... Not after being forced to kill innocent children, because that's what they were. They were all children.

Cato put his arm around Katniss's shoulders, carefully lifting her to her feet. She leans against his shoulder, her dark braid slipping off her shoulders and tickles his stomach. He tightens his grip on her and quickly pulls her through the steely grey hallways. He wants to try and avoid all the other tributes because if they see her, they'll label her as weak. He'll get her out of here for a few hours before their private training sessions so she can clear her head.

He is able to sneak them through the building without running into any of the tributes, he is only faced with a few Avoxes seeing them. He eventually reaches the District 12 living quarters and he hauls her to the couch and practically drops her on it. She pulls her knees about to her chest and buries her face in the couch cushion.

Cato stares at her, wondering what on earth he can do to get her out of this state. Then he gets an idea. He goes to the sink and grabs a glass. He fills it to the brim with icy water, carefully tiptoes over to Katniss, takes a deep breath then throws the entire contents of the glass on her head. She sits up and screams at him, calling him a multitude of foul names. Cato jumps behind the couch, but can't contain a sudden burst of laughter at the now red-faced girl who's screaming at him.

"Glad to see you back, sparky."

* * *

They return to the Training Center in time for the private training sessions. Katniss takes a seat beside Haymitch, who's holding his forehead in his hand and his eyes are squeezed shut.

"Hangover?" she asks, a smirk plastered on her face.

"Shut the fuck up, kid." he growls and Katniss snorts and leans back against the wall. She doesn't say anymore to him, only mentally prepares what she will do to impress the Gamemakers.

"Hey, girl on fire."

Katniss nearly jumps out of her skin at sudden voice beside her. Her head shoots to the side and to her immediate discomfort, find her lips on centimetres away from Finnick's. She can smell his breath; minty and sweet mixed together. His sea green eyes sweep over her features and his lips twitch into a smile.

"I haven't seen much of you these past few days," he says, his smile suddenly changing into a pout.

"Well I thought you'd be very occupied with those countless Capitol beauties you have," she responds with a hint of bitterness. It's not that she has any romatnic feelings towards Finnick at all; it's just she hates how he sleeps around with anything that has a heart beat. It's disgusting.

"Hey, don't be so rude," He says. He actually seems angry, but he quickly realizes that and looks away, putting on his usual cocky façade. "Good luck, girl on fire." he says, his lips so close to her ear that her skin pebbles with goosebumps and she shivers. He gets up and joins his tribute partner, Mags. She can occasionally see him glance over in her direction, his eyes always roaming over her body. She shivers again and turns to Haymitch, poking him to see if he's awake. His hand flies up and slaps her in the arm.

"Stupid kid," he grumbles, his voice muffled by his hand.

* * *

The sessions are over and Cato is sitting on the couch, waiting impatiently to see the scores. Enobaria is behind him and he can hear her fidgeting with a piece of cloth. He knows she is nervous, but will never ever show that to anyone. The only reason she is even showing it now because she plans on killing Cato as soon as they get into the arena; which is tomorrow. The interviews are tonight and they should be getting ready but Enobaria yelled at the prep team to leave them alone until the scores are announced. He hears Caesar Flickerman on the screen and quickly sits up, eager to see what the scores are. Enobaria steps forward and grips the back of the couch, her nails digging into the fabric.

Gloss gets a nine, Cashmere an eight. Cato gets an eleven. He smiles, proud of the score. During his session, he used his swords to destroy ten holograms. Then he found one of the dummies and he thought he might as well go out with a bang. He ripped the dummie apart, limb from limb. He dumps the pile of plastic on the floor and watches with an arrogant smile as the head Gamemaker stares at him. They dismiss him and he leaves.

Cato is snapped out of the memory when he hears Enobaria snarl. Her score was a nine, like Gloss and she's clearly angry she got a lower score than Cato. She begins to storm out the room, but grabs a vase and throws it at the wall before she leaves. It shatters into a hundred pieces and Enobaria steps on the shards as she leaves.

Cato doesn't leave because he wants to see what Katniss scored. All the other tributes scored relatively well, none of them were below a seven. As they get to District 9, Cato inadvertently sucks in his breath when he sees the picture of Syra. Her chin is held high and her hair tumbles over her shoulders in glossy curls. She gets an eight.

"Fuck..." he groans and looks away from her picture. He's feeling... Guilty. But why though? Lots of people have sex with people they barely know. It happens all the time. He's not dating anyone, and like Syra said, they're only doing it so they don't have to feel lonely before they go into the arena. There's nothing wrong with it... So why does he feel guilty?

"Oh shut the fuck up," he mutters to himself and looks back at the screen. He has to stop acting like an adolescent boy and focus on the task at hand; the games.

It takes another moment for Katniss's score to be revealed, but he's happy with the result. She got an eleven, like him, and her partner got a ten.

He gets up and makes his way out to join the prep team so he can get ready for the interviews tonight. He's interested to see how these are going to turn out.

* * *

"Holy fuck..." That's all Cato can say when he sees Katniss that night.

"What?" she asks, her stormy grey eyes glaring at him.

"You look really good, sparky." he says and she looks away, red immediately filling her cheeks. Cato wasn't lying, she did look really good. Cinna didn't want to completely expose her, but he did look a little more... Risque than usual. She's wearing a deep blue dress, because if fire can get hot enough it can turn blue, with shimmering golden accents on the hem and the bust line. She has long golden earings on and a sapphire cuff accompanying her left ear as well. Haymitch is wearing a dark blue suit to match to match her and he even has matching gold cufflinks. The latter soon comes over and puts his arm around Katniss's shoulders, towing her away from Cato.

"Stop flirting, kid." he hisses in her ear. Katniss throws an apologetic look at Cato but follows Haymitch none the less. He hauls her over to Effie, who squeals and starts to fix their clothing.

"Oh, you two look incredible! Definitely far better than any of the other tributes!" she squeals. "Now, don't forget to hold your chin high and smile!"

* * *

Cato tries to stand still as his stylist picks at his hair and adjusts his suit. His suit is similar to the color of his Parade outfit; a dark, stony grey. His stylist taps his chin, forcing him to hold it up higher.

"You'll be on in ten minutes, Cato! Now for God sakes, try to help me so I can finish!" the man exclaims. Cato has to resist the urge to punch him in his little, fat face. The man seems to realize that he has angered him, so he finishes his final touches quickly and runs out of the room. Cato breathes in and out slowly, trying to control his raging temper. He really has to do something about it.

"Well, don't you look amazing."

Cato doesn't even bother turning around. It's Syra. He hears the clip-clop of her heels as she crosses the room, and then her hands on his shoulders. She presses a kiss to his neck, her lips lingering on his skin. She begins kissing his earlobe and he lets out an involuntary groan. But then his eyes snap open and he realizes this isn't right. He quickly turns around and grabs her wrists, holding her at arms length away from him. She's wearing a low-cut, shimmering gold gown and he has a feeling that she's done that to entice him even more... As if she needed to. She's staring at him with that innocent look in her eyes.

"We need to stop this. I barely know you!" He shouts at her. She stands straight, ripping her arms out of his grasp. He sees that he has left red marks on her wrist.

"Why does that matter? It's just- it's just sex! Why should it matter if we know each other? It hasn't before!" she screams at him. Her hands are planted on her scalp and she looks like she plans on ripping her hair out.

"Wait, what-"

"It didn't matter that we didn't know each other. It was just sex, that's all it was! You won't have to say you love them, just sleep with them. That's all it is! All it is!" she screams. She's clawing at her face now, her nails leaving bright red marks along her cheeks.

Until now, Cato has watched her with pure fright. This woman has gone completely insane. But soon he sees little drops of blood sliding down her cheeks. He runs forwards and pulls her hands away from her face, trying desperately to stop her from hurting herself. She's crying now. Cato pulls her close, kissing her head and murmuring comforting words.

They may have survived the games, but they're all broken now. Katniss, Syra, Johanna, Haymitch, Cato and even Finnick for God's sake. Cato often finds himself lost in memories, that make him incapable of moving. He finds himself almost unable to breathe. After that he'll do what Haymitch does, drink himself into oblivion. No one knows yet, no one has seen him. But he's scared that one day someone will see him and they'll label him as a weak, broken and just as insane as the rest of them.

* * *

Katniss stands among the other tributes, waiting for Haymitch to make his way on to the stage. Her interview had really, really shaken up the audience. She had just spoken to Caesar about how she was sad to be going, how she felt that the Capitol didn't love her anymore. The audience had erupted, screaming that it wasn't true. Haymitch had told her to try to do anything to stop these games, because throwing all these victors into an arena is just hell waiting to break loose. So, that's why Haymitch told her to try to stop these games. She couldn't think of anything other than claiming that the Capitol didn't love her, in hopes the Capitol could maybe riot against Snow. However, that's very doubtful. That wasn't the end of it though. Of course, Caesar asked her to twirl for the crowd. And to everyone's shock, and her fright, her dress began to go up in flames. The satin fabric was eaten away by flames and was replaced by a beaded grey dress. When she spread her arms, wings sprouted from the fabric under her arms. She looked like a Mockingjay, the bird on her pin.

Haymitch comes on the stage and stands beside Caesar, causing the crowed to erupt in applause. Haymitch's face is grim and serious. Caesar tries to joke with him, in attempt to make him smile, but of course there's nothing to make him even so much as twitch.

"So, Haymitch, we haven't seen you fight in almost twenty-five years! Are you excited, nervous, anxious...?" Caesar asks when he realizes Haymitch won't react to his jokes.

"Well, I'm sure as hell not excited and I'm not nervous nor anxious." Haymitch answers gruffly, looking away from the stupid lavender colored man.

"Ah, come now Haymitch! There seems to be something troubling you," Caesar says with his purple lips drawn into a pout.

"I just don't think a pregnant woman should have to go and fight for her life and that of her baby." he says and for a split second there's silence, but then the people explode.

Katniss has never seen an audience react in such a way before. They were on their feet, screaming and trying to run out of their seats to get closer to the stage. Caesar does his best to calm them, but soon realizes it's useless and turns back to Haymitch.

"Who on earth are you talking about?!" he asks.

"My partner," Haymitch responds and points at Katniss. She knows he must have a reason for doing this, so she tries her best to play along. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Cato staring at her, disbelief written on his face.

"Who's the father!?" Caesar asks. He's screaming now, so he can be heard over the shouts of the people. Haymitch glances back at Katniss, giving her a quick wink before he responds.

"It's not my place to say, they want their privacy. Just now they're very much in love and you should all be ashamed for ripping them apart like this. And if they die, it will be because of all of you!"

* * *

Katniss stands in the bathroom, trying her best to wipe off the heavy makeup they had on her eyes.

"They won't stop it..." she says quietly to Haymitch, who is sitting on the edge of the tub. He has a bottle of amber-colored liquor in his hand and he takes a swig before answering.

"They might. If the Capitol citizens think it's their fault that all these beloved Victors will die, they could try to stop it. Oh, by the way, I've heard some rumors that many people believe that Cato is the father of the child." he says. He snorts and takes another swig of the drink.

"Of course they do," she grumbles and continues furiously rubbing at her eye but the damn makeup won't move.

A loud knock on the door interrupts her and makes Haymitch jump and tumble backwards into the tub.

"JesusfuckingChristwhothehellisthisfucker-"

Katniss is impressed he was able to get all those words out before he could even manage to get to sit up. She leaves him to pull himself out and goes to the door to see who it is. She opens it a crack, but then someone literally kicks it open. She stumbles backwards and nearly falls over, but someone reaches out to steady her before she can make contact with the ground. She looks up and sees those familiar icy eyes.

"Is it true?" he asks.

"No. Don't tell anyone, but no it's not. Haymitch said that because he thought he could stop the Games. But I don't think they will." she answers.

"No, they won't. Our mentor just came and told us." he says. Katniss takes a deep breath and stands up, rubbing her hands over her face.

"It was worth a try I guess," she says quietly. Cato nods and stands beside her, biting his lip and crossing his arms over his chest. "Are you ready?" she asks him.

He looks at her, and for maybe the third time in the time they've known each other, he actually smiles. It's not a fake smile, or a smirk, or a cocky smile. It's a genuine smile. It show's the wrinkles around his eyelids, it manages to hide the shadows that were under his eyes and makes him look almost happy. She knows that he is rarely happy, not since the last Games, a year ago. She knows that the reasons why he is sad. A year ago, he had a purpose in life; winning the Games and bringing honor to his District. He was well liked and respected. But this year, he sees how terrible the Games are and that winning them would bring nothing but shame and sadness to him personally. And in choosing Katniss over winning, his District now feels nothing but hate towards him now. So that's why he's sad, because he doesn't know what to do with his life now, and has lost all the people he once loved.

Well, almost all of them.

Katniss steps forwards and wraps her arms around his chest. He tenses and looks down at her, wondering what she's doing.

"You're not alone, you know that right?" she whispers.

"What-"

"You heard me. I know you often feel that way, but you're not," she says. She steps away and looks at him, showing him that she wasn't kidding. "Though don't you dare think that I've gone soft!" she snaps and punches him in the arm.

He rubs his arm and nods. Despite being small, she packs a hard punch.

* * *

Cato returns to his room, feeling a little better since his talk with Katniss. He was generally worried that she was pregnant, and he didn't know what that would've been like to deal with in the arena. She also told him about the alliance she and Haymitch were planning. He agreed, despite the fact he wasn't very trusting of Finnick. Hopefully, at least for the first day, neither of them will have to use their weapons on each other.

He goes back to his room without bothering to talk to Enobaria, who's on the couch. Instead, he goes straight to the shower. He turns the water on hot ands stands in it for what seems to be an hour. It's relaxing for him. He was about ready to turn the water off, but the sound of the bathroom door alerts him to the other person who has entered the bathroom. Despite the glass of the shower being fogged, the white of her skin and ebony of her hair gives her away.

She opens the sliding glass door and steps inside, looking up at him, not with a wide-eyed innocent look, but a look of determination. She doesn't have anything on at all this time, not even a nightgown. The red claw marks she left on her cheeks have been healed, showing no signs they were ever there.

"I'm sorry for what happened earlier. You shouldn't have seen that," she says quietly. She starts to press her lips against his collar-bone and he doesn't stop her. "Let me make it up to you." she whispers.

Cato doesn't stop her, though he feels like he should. He shouldn't be using her just for her body, but soon his animalistic urges overrule his feelings of guilt.

* * *

The next day he stands in the glass tube. He's breathing slowly. He's not scared, just apprehensive. He has decided what his priorities are;

1) Find a weapon.

2) Find Katniss.

3) Take out the most dangerous tributes, which in this case is District 1 and Enobaria.

He isn't going to look for Syra, she told him not to when she was leaving the night before. She said it's not his job to protect her, that she doesn't need it and that she knows that someone else is more important to him, and he didn't argue.

He feels the pedestal beneath his feet begin to move. For several long moments, everything is black. When he eventually reaches the top, the first thing he notices is the smell of salt water.


	4. Chapter 4

Katniss breathes in and out slowly, trying to calm down and control her emotions and focus on the task at hand; surviving. But what she just witnessed had caused her heart to shatter. Cinna, her amazing Cinna, had been beaten in front of her and then dragged away; while she was trapped in the glass tube, unable to do anything but watch. She knew Snow had done that purposely, to throw her off her game and weaken her.

_No. You won't fucking break me! You won't!_

Those angry words run through her mind as the countdown continues. She observes the arena. Water. Water everywhere. And it's hot, really hot. Beads of sweat have started to form at her brow.

7

She stares at the Cornucopia, fire still raging through her body. She allows herself to glance around at the pedestals and soon sees Haymitch to her left. She doesn't see Cato, he must be behind the Cornucopia.

5

Her head snaps back to the Cornucopia and she leans forwards, balancing on the balls of her feet, ready to dive into the water. She sees a bow and arrows directly in front of her, at the Cornucopia. Before she knows it, the countdown is done.

She jumps into the water, swimming as quickly as she can. She was never a strong swimmer, obviously, because she was raised in 12 where it was never a priority. But her father had taught her to swim when they would go to the pond.

A sharp pain shoots through her head and she realizes she had swum head first into a rock. She's at the Cornucopia. She pulls herself up and grabs the bow and arrows, just as the female tribute from District 8 comes running towards her. She loads the arrow and shoots it. It hits the woman in the chest and she topples into the water. A moment later, a cannon goes off. Someone grabs her from behind. She kicks and squirms in their arms, trying her best to get out of their grasp.

"Stop it, kid! It's me!" Haymitch shouts at her. She nods and he releases her. He's about to say something, but his eyes grow wide.

"Get down!" he yells at her. She drops to her knees and covers her head as Haymitch throws a knife at the District 5 male tribute, who was sneaking up behind Katniss, ready to drive a spear into her back. The knife hits him in the chest, but it doesn't kill him. He lets out a shout and his hand flies to his chest, blood already starting to flow out of the wound. Katniss grabs her bow and starts to load the arrow, but before she can kill him, he already falls to the ground, dead, with a trident in his back. Finnick runs forward, ripping the trident out of the mans back.

"Allies?" Haymitch asks him. Finnick nods then looks at Katniss, a mischievous smile on his face.

"You'll be safe with me, girl on fire." he tells her.

"Speak for yourself, Odair! If you make a wrong move than you won't be safe with me around!" She shouts and jumps to her feet, shoving Finnick away from her.

"I need to find Mags!" Finnick says to Haymitch, who is leading the three of them away from the Cornucopia. Katniss and Finnick grab two packs before running after Haymitch. But Katniss skids to a stop and begins to look around for someone she's forgotten; Cato.

"Hey, girl on fire, now's not the time for cold feet! Hurry up!" Finnick shouts when he notices her sudden stop.

"No! I need to find someone-"

Someone grabs her hand and hauls her forwards. She's about to stab him with an arrow, but then she recognizes the blond hair. "Found you." he says. She lets out a relieved sigh and they continue running to catch up with Haymitch and Finnick, who have found Mags.

"We have to get into the jungle, the island isn't safe." Cato says. Finnick and Haymitch glare at him, unsure whether to trust him. Katniss rolls her eyes, they don't have time for this shit.

"Yes we do, now hurry up and go into the jungle!" she shouts at them and the two men glance at each other, give a quick nod then the five run into the forest, Mags on Finnick's back, and Cato still holding on to Katniss's hand.

* * *

They managed to get to, what seemed like, a safe spot in the jungle. Katniss had found some fruit that Finnick had deemed safe, because he had them in his District. He called it a mango. She was glad to have them, because it was juicy and they had no water. She bites into the fruit and the juices dribble down her chin. She sucks the fruit, drawing out the remaining juice. Finnick is sitting beside her, but he's stopped eating and is looking at her with that same mischievous smile.

"What are you looking at?" she snaps at him.

He snorts and takes another bite of the mango. "Just you. You're more than enough of a view, beauty."

"Beauty? Stop your flattery. It won't work on me." she hisses. Her sudden hostility surprises him.

"Woah! Calm down, fire girl. I only flatter the people I like." He says. He leans forwards, so his lips are pressed against her ear. She begins to move away, but he grabs her arm, keeping her still.

"What do you want?" she snaps.

"Just to know more about you. I know about everyone... Except you. You're a mystery to me and I can't have that." he whispers in her ear. She rips her arm out of his grip and stands up, glaring at him.

"I won't be one of your Capitol dolls, Finnick. I'm not going to give you all my secrets so I can have the honor of you getting into my pants. Leave me alone." she says, drawing out the last three words. Finnick isn't smiling anymore instead, he's looking at the leaves beneath his feet. She makes her over to Haymitch, who's' sitting with Mags. Cato has gone to find some more fruit. As she walks away, she hears Finnick make one last remark.

"But you are alone, aren't you? We all are."

* * *

The sky has turned dark now. Katniss is sitting beside Cato, her knees drawn to her chest. The two of them are on first watch. Cato looks over to her, because she's been unusually quiet.

"You ok?" he asks her.

She turns to him and nods hesitantly. Christ, she's bad at lying.

"You suck at lying. Tell me the truth," he says softly. Katniss sighs and leans on his shoulder.

"Just something Finnick said to me earlier. It kind of stuck with me," she says. Cato nods but doesn't push her, because he knows she just recoil and stop talking to him completely. If she wants to tell him, than she will, but he won't pester her. So they just remain silent, until Cato notices what look to be like rain clouds start to form in the sky. With a deep rumble of thunder, rain begins to fall to the ground. It is almost like someone has a hose and is getting closer and closer to them. Soon it's falling down in sheets and is only a foot away from them.

"What the...?" Cato mumbles. He extends his hand, but as soon as the rain touches his skin, searing pain shoots through his hand.

"Ah!" he shouts and jumps backwards. Katniss is behind him and is pulling at his shoulders, trying desperately to get him to his feet.

"The rain! Watch out for the rain!" He screams when he gets to his feet. He grabs his sword and Katniss grabs her bow and arrows and the run down to Finnick, Haymitch and Mags. Finnick pulls Mags on to his back and they run down, trying desperately to avoid the rain. Cato's hand as blistered into large, red welts. One explodes and his hand is covered in disgusting, slimy pus. Acid rain... Lovely.

He hears Katniss scream as the rain touches her back and the acid eats through her suit. He turns around and grabs her, throwing her in front of him. If the rain reaches them, he has far more muscle and flesh on him rather compared to her, because there's practically nothing on her, not fat or muscles. So the rain won't effect him as much as it would her. Well, that's his analogy anyway. The rain hits his back and the fiery pain shoots through his body. He looks up, desperate to see some sort of shelter. But instead he sees something he was not expecting.

"Syra!?"

The name comes out before he can stop it. They seem to be nearing her, but she's doing some weird motion with her hands. A moment later, he sees why. Haymitch and Finnick run straight into a force field. They go flying back and Haymitch crashes into Katniss, knocking her to the ground. The rain has reached them and their agonizing screams fill the air.

He's pounding against the force field, and Syra on the other side is doing the same. She's crying and looks at him with a heartbroken expression on her face. She seems to be screaming "I'm sorry" over and over again.

The rain is now on him. The pain of the acid forces him down on to his knees, his hands are still on the force field but they're shaking uncontrollably.

This is it. This is the end, he thinks.

But then, without notice, the force field disappears as well as the rain. He slumps to the ground, his whole body shaking due to the pain. He hears Syra beside him, she's screaming at him.

"Wake up, oh my God please wake up!" she says. She's crying, he can tell.

"Katniss..." he groans. He realizes he hasn't heard her yet.

"I'll check on her," Syra tells him.

It takes him a while to be able to so much as get on to his hands and knees. He looks up and sees Syra checking Katniss, who appears to be alright. By the looks of it, Haymitch had sheltered her from the rain by using his own body as a shield. He's still conscious, but badly burned on his entire backside. Katniss is holding on to his hand tightly.

Cato breathes out a sigh of relief that Katniss is relatively uninjured, but then he turns his attention to Finnick and Mags, who are a few feet away from him. Mags is shaking Finnick, letting out silent sobs because he's not responding. Cato crawls over to them and looks at Finnick.

"Oh Jesus," he says. Finnick is burned everywhere. His skin is covered in blood, welts and pus.

"Cato!"

He turns around and sees Katniss running towards him. She has a visible limp, because her calf got burned, but she doesn't let it slow her down. She reaches him and kneels down, gasping at him.

"Oh my God, your back-"

"It's fine. Listen, we need to get them somewhere. Maybe to some water or something to clean them up." He tells her. She nods and turns to Syra, who is supporting Haymitch.

"There's a small pool down that way, it shouldn't take long to get there." she says.

She takes Haymitch and Katniss and Cato share the weight of Finnick. Haymitch is still able to drag himself, so Syra can manage him by herself. Mags is walking beside Katniss. She doesn't seem overly injured, because Finnick threw himself over her to protect her from the rain. Haymitch had told Katniss once that Finnick was fiercely protective of Mags, but she hadn't believed him. She does now.

They reach the pool, just as Cato's legs give out. He falls to the ground, taking Katniss and Finnick with him. Haymitch had passed out too. He and Syra had fallen, but he landed with his torso in the water. Syra tries to lift him out, but then she notices that the water seems to somehow help the burns left by the acid.

"Look!" she squeals. She scoops water up in her hands and drops it over Haymitch's neck. She rubs it, and the welts practically melt of his skin. Her hands are soon covered in his dead skin, blood and pus. It doesn't seem to stop her, which strikes Katniss as odd because she seems like a beauty queen who would hate to so much as crack a nail.

Katniss leads Mags over to the water and gets her started on rubbing her legs. She returns for Finnick and drags him over to the water. She drops him in, and Mags quickly rushes over to him and begins to rub away the welts on his bronze skin.

Katniss walks over to Cato and takes his arm, putting it over her shoulders so he could lean on her. "It's ok, lean on me. You'll be ok," she whispers. The tall boy tightens his arm around her and manages to whisper a thank you.

He can barely walk, but with her help, they make it to the pool. Katniss lets go of him and he crashes into the water. She goes in after him and immediately begins to wash away the disgusting burns. He groans as she washes the acid off his skin.

It takes her a few minutes to wash away all the burns on him. Syra has finished with Haymitch and has him propped up against a tree. She brushes some of his messy, wet hair out of his eyes and then leaves him to rest. She goes over to Mags and Finnick. Mags has Finnick clean and now he's lying on the ground. Mags is sitting beside him, her hand resting on his shoulder. Syra cups water in her hands and finishes wiping away the burns on Mags's neck.

Katniss is starting to feel exhausted, probably because of the exertion of the past hour. Cato seems to be feeling that as well. Katniss begins scrubbing away the burns on her calves, but a pair of strong hands replace hers.

"Let me. You just had to deal with my bodily fluids for the past while, let me return the favor." Cato says quietly. Katniss doesn't argue, and just closes her eyes as he rubs away the searing pain that the acid left behind. Luckily, she doesn't have too many burns so it doesn't take him a long time to clean her legs and arms.

When he finishes, he's almost asleep. He crawls on to the shore beside Katniss and the two of them slump down on the ground. She can hear the soft snores from Haymitch, who is sound asleep against the tree. Mags and Finnick are asleep too. Syra tiptoes over to Katniss and Cato. Katniss tenses, but Syra puts her hand on her shoulder.

"It's ok. I can take watch for the night. I promise I won't do anything to you," she says. Katniss sees her eyes drift over to Cato, who is practically asleep. But he forces his eyes open and looks at her.

"Thank you. You can trust her, Katniss." he whispers, but then his eyes shut and he's asleep. Katniss looks at Syra and nods, mumbling a thank you. Syra's eyes are still on Cato.

"He really cares about you," she says softly. "You should hold on to him. Because once you lose someone you care about, you can never get them back." She continues. She almost seems to be speaking to herself. She gets up and walks away, leaving Katniss on the ground, staring at her.

"What the fuck..." she mutters. What on earth possessed Syra to say such a thing?

She's too tired to dwell on it. She drops to the ground and closes her eyes and in mere seconds, she's asleep.

* * *

Syra sits against the tree, her knees wrapped around her knees. Her spear is beside her, just in case. She looks over at Cato who has his arm over Katniss as they sleep.

She misses that so much. She hasn't felt wanted or loved in a long, long time. Not since Cayson died...

She closes her eyes and shakes her head violently. She hates thinking about him because it makes her feel broken inside. If only she had just done what that client wanted! If she did, then Snow wouldn't have killed Cayson. It's all her fault, all her fault. And when she saw Cato, it just reminded her of Cayson that's why she went after him. She had hoped that maybe, she could close her eyes and imagine it was Cayson and not Cato she was sleeping with; but when she did, she was then painfully reminded that it wasn't Cayson when her eyes opened.

"I miss you," she whispers. She says it every single night.

A rustle in the trees causes her to snap out of her thoughts. She grabs her spear and jumps up, looking around for the source of the noise. Her senses on high alert. Suddenly, something bounds out of the bushes and jumps on her. It's the District 6 tribute. They crash to the ground, but she has her spear across her chest like a guard, keeping the man from stabbing her. He growls at her and she is able to kick him in the stomach. She arches her back and looks behind her, just in time to see the female District 6 tribute running towards Mags, sword raised.

"Mags! Finnick!" she screams as loudly as she can. The male tribute punches her in the throat, but Syra is able to swerve her spear around and stab him in the chest. She hears a canon, but the man isn't dead yet. Finnick must have killed the woman before she could attack Mags, that's what it is. The male tribute is still breathing, so she takes the spear and stabs him in the eye, then she hears the canon. She turns around and expects to see Finnick and Mags, but instead she sees just Finnick. The female District 6 tribute is lying dead a few feet away from him and he's kneeling on the ground, his shoulders shaking from sobbing. He's kneeling beside something... Then she sees the glimpse of curly white hair, but it's tainted with red.

She can't help the scream that rips from her throat.

"Mags!"


	5. Chapter 5

Syra's scream rips through the small camp and forces everyone to jump awake. Haymitch topples out of his sleeping place, and is temporarily confused, but then he shakes his head and reality hits him like a brick. The two dead District 6 tributes, and a very upset Finnick. He's sitting over a body-

Oh fuck.

He lurches off the ground and runs towards them. He stumbles but manages to regain his footing just as he reaches Finnick and Mags. Finnick is sobbing, his entire body shaking. Mags, who's still alive but barely. She raises a shaking hand and touches it gently against Finnick's cheek. He chokes out another sob and raises his own large hand to cover hers. Bronze against white.

Haymtich knew how much Mags meant to Finnick. She was, as he once confined to Haymitch, practically his family. He could only guess how painful this was for him- actually he doesn't need to guess. He knows how painful it is to lose someone you love.

Syra is crying too. Cato has his arms wrapped around her and he's holding her to his chest. She's not putting on a show- she actually did care about Mags. Everyone cared about Mags. Everyone loved her.

He looks over and sees Katniss looking at the heart breaking sight of one of the Capitol's strongest Victors brought to his knees and racked with sobs. He reaches out and pulls Katniss closer to him, tucking her under his arm. She buries her face in his shoulder, not wanting to look at them any longer. Haymitch forces himself to watch. Mags looks up at him, offering a weak smile. One last goodbye. He forces himself to smile in return.

Her hand slips from Finnick's face, leaving a trail of blood in its wake. And then there's the sound of a canon.

* * *

Finnick is sitting against a tree, completely alone. He hasn't said a word since Mags died. He hasn't even wiped the blood off his face. Katniss stares at him, chewing her lip. She knows she's probably the last person he wants to see, but she feels like she should try to help him. She, Syra, Cato and Haymitch were sitting in a small circle, counting their supplies. They still have no water but the juice from the mango is holding them over... For now.

She reaches forwards and takes a mango, ignoring the groups quizzical looks. She gets up and goes to Finnick, walking quietly. She reaches him and holds out the mango, as a peace-offering. He glances it but then looks away quickly, shaking his head as a response.

"You should eat something," she says softly.

"I don't want to." he snaps. She's not used to his sharp tone.

"Finnick... I'm so sorry," she says. He turns away, not wanting her pity. She takes a seat beside him and tucks her knees against her chest. "You know, I lost my dad when I was younger. He was going down to the mines and there was an explosion. I don't like telling people, but I guess the reason I'm telling you this is because I actually know what it's like to lose a parent. So many people tell you their sorry and you just want to ignore them; because how could they possibly know what it's like? But I really do and I can honestly say that I am so sorry." she tells him. He's turned his head to look at her. His beautiful eyes are bright red, as sure sign he has cried.

"I should have protected her. I should have-"

"Don't do that. Don't do that to yourself. You'll torture yourself if you do that. You did everything you could. It was not your fault, Finnick." she says quietly. He nods and swallows the lump in his throat. She let's go of the mango and leans forwards, wiping the blood off his face with a large leaf she had come across. He lets her and closes his eyes. When she's done, she does something she deems really stupid. She leans forwards and wraps her arms around his shoulders. He doesn't resist. He leans forwards as well, resting his face in the crook of her neck and she cradles him against her chest. Finnick has his arms around her stomach, pulling her closer to him.

Neither of them notice Cato staring at him, with rage written across his face and fire in his eyes.

* * *

"Listen, we need to go back to the Cornucopia on the island because we have no water. We won't last long without that. Everyone good with that?" Haymitch asks the small group. Katniss and Finnick have returned to them and Finnick has now managed to calm down. Or at least put on a damn good façade.

"Do you want me to leave?" Syra asks quietly. She looks up at them with those wide doe eyes.

"You can stay; for now." Haymitch says gruffly. He throws a quick glance at Cato, who immediately turns away from the scrutinizing gaze.

They set off, taking what little supplies they have. Basically only their weapons, some mangos and empty water bottles and rope from the packs Katniss and Finnick managed to grab at the beginning of the games.

They all walk in silence during their trip to the island. Haymitch is leading, behind him is Syra and Finnick and bringing up the rear are Katniss and Cato. They're barely looking at each other. Cato is still angry at the fact that Finnick had his fucking arms wrapped around her, and she didn't seem to care. He knows this shouldn't affect him, Katniss is only his friend! And he did way more than just hugging with Syra, so it is completely hypocritical of him to be acting like this. And they were in the fucking arena- when did he ever care about Katniss touching anyone? God, it feels like he's thirteen again. He had a crush on this girl named Riya and when he once saw her flirting with another guy, so he broke the guys arm. Needless to say, that didn't get him anywhere with Riya.

He looks over to Katniss and wonders what she is thinking about. Mags maybe? Finnick? He feels himself growl at the thought. Katniss looks up at him curiously when she hears the noise.

"What was that?" she asks.

"Nothing," he responds bitterly, still thinking about the stupid District 4 tribute.

"You're so weird sometimes." she says, but he can tell she's smiling as she says it. He's about to respond, but Haymitch suddenly holds up his hand. They've arrived at the beach. Haymitch kneels down and the other surround him. He has become the leader of the group.

"Ok, I think Cato and Finnick should go first. No offense Katniss, but you're not the best at hand to hand combat. And Syra, you're a good fighter but I need you on the beach in case some of the careers decide to show up. Now, Finnick and Cato, when you go up I need you to look for water. That's the main priority. If not that, just grab some food or weapons. Sound good?"

Everyone nods and soon their plan is in motion. Haymitch and Syra are at the treeline, keeping watch for any of the careers. Katniss is up in a tree which gives her a good look at the beach too. Cato and Finnick are running over the stones leading to the Cornucopia.

"Do you have my back?" Finnick asks him. They're speaking quietly, but they're so close together it doesn't matter.

"Depends on if you have mine," Cato responds, eyeing him suspiciously.

"For now, yes I do." Finnick responds as they reach the tall metal structure.

"Then I have yours." Cato says. The two of them disperse and begin looking for the supplies. The careers have hidden them pretty well, but they manage to find a few things. Cato finds a bag of dry fruit and nuts and a set of daggers, like Clove used. Finnick finds a spear and, jackpot, a few bottles of water. He's about to turn and call out to Cato, but he's cut short when someone jumps on him from the high ledge of the cornucopia. It's Cashmere. They crash to the ground and he feels a sharp pain in his neck, it's her pressing a knife under his chin. He hears Cato running towards them, but then something dawns on him. Where Cashmere is, Gloss is definitely not far off. He arches his head back than snaps up; head butting Cashmere has hard as he could. He hears the crack as her nose breaks and she lets out a cry.

"Wait, Cato don't!" he shouts but it's too late. Just as he turns around, he sees Cato get hauled to a stop by Gloss who then thrusts a dagger deep into Cato's back.

* * *

Katniss feels her heart stop as she sees Cato stumble. Gloss raises the dagger again and brings it down on Cato's shoulder, and that forces Cato to fall to his knees.

She hears a loud scream, a scream of his name, and soon realizes she's doing it herself. Cato is still on his knees, and Gloss is preparing to bring the dagger down on his neck as a final death-blow, but amazingly, Cato grabs his sword and turns around and thrusts it through Gloss's stomach before he slumps to the ground. Finnick has put his trident through Cashmere's head and now runs to Gloss, doing the same thing to him that he did to his sister. She hears two canon's go off.

She hurls herself out of the tree and lands on the soft sand of the beach. Syra and Haymitch have already began running to the Cornucopia and she quickly catches up with it. She sees Enobaria running into the jungle, but doesn't bother with her. Enobaria must now she can't take all of them so she's retreating.

Katniss skids to a stop at Cato's side. Her hand flies to her mouth when she sees the amount of blood gushing from his wounds. She drops to her knees and presses her hand to the wound on his shoulder, trying desperately to stop the bleeding.

"Oh my God, oh my God! Cato don't leave me please don't leave me!" she's screaming this at him. Syra is on his other side. She's ripping through a pack, looking for medical supplies.

"Don't leave Cayson, don't leave again," she whispers and Katniss can see tears streaming down her face.

Wait, Cayson? Who is-

A groan from Cato causes her to focus all her attention on him. Her hands are now covered in blood.

"Oh my God! Haymitch do something!" she screams at her mentor. He seemed to be in shock, but then he comes back to his senses. He throws Katniss out-of-the-way and grabs Cato. He grabs one of his arms, and one of his legs, and lifts the boy on to his shoulders. Katniss is amazed he isn't crushed. He begins to return to the beach and Katniss feels someone tugging on her arm. It's Finnick, who has the water bottles under one arm.

"Hurry up!" he shouts. She nods, but then remembers Syra, who's sitting on the rocks, shaking. Katniss grabs her by the arm and pulls her away from the Cornucopia and back to the beach. They run across the rocks quickly, but it's not fast enough for her. Haymitch has disappeared into the jungle, knowing the beach isn't overly safe for a large group of people. He stops at a clearing and kneels down, letting Cato slip off his shoulders. Katniss is behind him, and grabs the bleeding boy before he can hit the ground. She has her arms wrapped around her chest and her legs around his waist. Haymitch goes to them and begins shaking Cato's shoulder, trying to get the kid to open his eyes... But nothing happens. Syra begins sobbing and Finnick quickly tucks her under his arm. He's looking at Cato with regret filling his sea green eyes.

Katniss has grown frantic. She looks up at Haymitch and begs him to help Cato. "Haymitch, do something! He's not waking up!" she screams at him. Haymitch looks lost and can only shake his head. To him, the boy is dead. He looks at the crazed girl in front of him, holding desperately on to Cato and as a result of that is covered now in blood. It's smeared across her face which makes her grey eyes stand out even more. There's such a look of desperation in them that his already broken heart breaks a little more as he mumbles these words to her.

"I'm sorry, Katniss."


	6. Chapter 6

Katniss's mouth is open wide, staring at her mentor with a broken expression. She hugs Cato tighter to her body and buries her face against his hair. She's practically folded her body around his. Finnick has let go of Syra and has dropped down to his knees beside the two of them. He looks up at Haymitch, looking just as desperate as Katniss.

"There must be something you can do! He's not dead yet!" He yells at Haymitch. Haymitch takes a step backwards, at a complete loss of how to save this kid.

"Haymitch, please!" Katniss screams at him.

"Stop shouting at me! Just stop it, kid!" Haymitch shouts at Katniss, who jumps at the sound of his furious tone. Haymitch rubs his hands over his eyes and then, he seems to get an idea. He grabs the detachable sleeve and rips it off his arm and throws it to Finnick, repeating the same gesture with the opposite arm. "Put that on his shoulder and the other on his back. Syra, start a fire." He instructs. It takes Katniss a moment to realize his plan. Her had snaps up and she begins shaking it violently. Haymitch snarls at her.

"You asked me to do something and this it kid! I'm sorry it's not the best thing but it's the only one we can do at the moment so roll Cato on his back right now." He snaps at Katniss. She knows he's right. So she and Finnick roll the large boy on his back. Finnick still has the fabric pressed Cato's shoulder, but it's soaked through now. He shudders at the hot liquid soaking his hand.

Syra has managed to make a small fire with the dry leaves she has found. Haymitch takes Cato's sword, which Finnick had grabbed before he ran off the island. He places the tip of the sword into the fire and waits until it begins to radiate a soft glow. He turns around and looks at Katniss. "Cover your ears, sweetheart." he says softly.

He presses the hot steel against the wound in Cato's shoulder. Cato's eyes shoot open and he releases a deafening roar. He hunches into a ball, trying to stop the pain from shooting through his body. Finnick and Katniss grab his arms and pin him down while Haymitch quickly cauterized the other wound on his back. The sickening sound of hot metal against skin makes everyone shudder. The smell that accompanies it is repulsive.

Cato is gasping, but alive. He's on his hands and knees, but still manages to keep himself up. He looks up at Katniss, who is on her knees in front of him. "Are you okay?!" she asks him, desperately looking for a sign that we wasn't about to drop dead. He looks up at her and smirks.

"Sorry for scaring you, sparky." He says to her.

She smiles... But then her face grows furious. Her hand flies up and slaps him so hard he looses his balance and topples right on top of Finnick. They both groan as they land on the ground.

"Don't you ever do that to me again!" she screams at Cato and then she wheels around on her heel and begins stalking off into the jungle.

"Where are you going?" Haymitch yells after her.

"To find a fucking mango!"

* * *

That night, Katniss sits against a tree, still grumbling to herself about Cato. She knew she had absolutely no right to be mad at him, what happened was most certainly not his fault. But he scared her, he scared her a lot. And that gives her a right to be pissed at him for a while. Haymitch is fast asleep a few feet away from her, his arms wrapped around a water bottle like it was a whiskey bottle. Finnick is staring at the sky, because the image of Mags had just appeared. She feels terrible for him, but there's nothing more she can do. She turns away and finds herself looking at Cato, once again. He's asleep and Syra is sitting beside him. Her fingers hover over his chest, but then she allows herself to run her fingers through her hair.

Okay, what the hell is on the go between the two of them? She's noticed the little glances, the way the would brush up against each other. But what she's noticed the most is how Syra refers to Cato as Cayson.

She gets up and walks over to them. Syra immediately pulls her hand away and wraps it around her leg once again. She doesn't look at Katniss when she sits down.

"How are you doing, Syra?" Katniss asks quietly.

Syra shrugs before answering. "I've been better. How about you?"

"The same," she responds. There's an awkward silence before Katniss opens her mouth again. "Listen, I need to ask you something. You keep calling Cato by a different name. Um, Cayson? Can I ask why?"

Syra stiffens, refusing to meet Katniss's eyes. "He was my boyfriend. He's dead now." she spits out. What Syra said is the truth, but not the whole truth. Cayson wasn't just her boyfriend, he was her husband. They got married when they were just seventeen. They even had a little boy named Landon. Only a few months after Landon was born, Syra got reaped. She knew Cayson wanted to volunteer with her, but he couldn't leave Landon. So Cayson made her promise to return to him no matter what the cost. He made her swear. And she kept her promise. She did return, but the price of her victory was high. Almost immediately, Snow sold her into prostitution. He told her that if she didn't do every single thing the client wanted that there would be severe consequences. She knew he wouldn't be joking about something like this, despite the fact she prayed he was. However, there was on client who was so repulsive and disgusting towards her that she just couldn't do it. She ran from the building and stayed in the shower for hours; trying to scrub off the dirt the man left on her skin. When she emerged from the shower, her skin raw and bleeding, she got the news that her husband had been killed in an accident in District 9 when one if the large silver barrels that held the grain had been knocked over and he had been crushed underneath it. And when she went back, she found out that Snow had taken her baby as well. Alive or dead, she has no idea.

Syra looks down at Cato, who looks so gentle when he sleeps. Just like Cayson. He even had the same blue eyes and blond hair; it's like a spitting image.

"He's just like him, Katniss. I know he cares about you... But I'm not going to give up without a fight, girl on fire," she snarls. Katniss looks alarmed at the sudden change in her demeanor. Syra looks at her, her dark hair falling in front of her face and her eyes just a little too blue for her skin. She's glowing. "I've been in this game a hell of a lot longer than you. I will get him, mark my words! He'll be mine!" she says, laughing as she speaks.

"He'll never be yours!" Katniss snaps at her. She doesn't know if Syra is completely sane, but she hates the way she talks about Cato likes he's some sort of object.

"Oh, my darling. He already is mine. He was from the moment I laid eyes on him."

Katniss feels her blood boil, but then something grabs her hand. She looks down to see Cato staring at the two of them. He slowly sits up and wiggles out of the middle of them. He looks very nervous.

"Stop this now. None of this shit matters, do you guys understand?" he asks, his tone low and angry. Katniss nods and then rises and leaves, embarrassed that she allowed that to go that far. She hears Cato murmur something to Syra and then he gets up and follows Katniss.

"Katniss, wait-"

"Do you want to tell me what exactly is going on here? Why is she still with us?" she whispers angrily.

"Kat, there's something wrong with her. Listen she's not right in the head. I've seen it up close. It's too dangerous to leave her alone right now, because she goes insane. It's better to keep an eye on her-"

"How have you seen it up close?" she interrupts.

He lets out an annoyed sigh before answering. "Does this really fucking matter?"

"Yes! Answer me!" She snaps.

"Fine! Fine, Katniss! I slept with her, alright? I thought it would only be a one time thing but it wasn't. I didn't plan on finding her here, but we did. So there, are you happy now?"

She swallows and looks down. She feels... Shitty. Really shitty. Of course Cato would go with her instead. Of course he would.

"Talk to me, Katniss." Cato says quietly.

"Why her? Why not me..." she asks him. She's not crying, she won't cry over something so stupid. She just thought she and Cato had a special bond.

"I didn't go after her. But I went with her because I was worried and sad... I was a lot of things. You're too special to me to do something so disgusting to you. Or at least, not now... I was scared of losing you and if I did that to you I thought I definitely would. I was just confused. I still am! This shouldn't even be a topic right now! Look where we are!" He exclaims. He searches her face, to see any emotion or sign of what she's feeling, but as always, she's well hidden. He sighs and put reaches up to rub his face with his hand, but the sudden movement causes him to be painfully reminded of the wound in his shoulder. He lets out a hiss of pain and lowers it. A pair of soft hands takes his forearm and holds it still. She takes a step forward and looks up at him with those sparkling grey eyes.

"I know you're right that this shouldn't be a topic and it won't be after tonight, but I just want to tell you that... I would never leave you. Not after everything we've been through." she whispers. He sighs, relieved at her words. He leans forwards and presses a kiss to her forehead. They stay there for a while, but then decide it's time to return before Haymitch comes and hauls them back to the camp by their ears.

* * *

Finnick takes a sip of water, allowing to to swish around his dry mouth before swallowing. He has never been more happy to have water in his life. He sees that Katniss and Cato have returned. Haymitch has awoken just in time to send them a little glare, but now has rolled over and gone to sleep again. Syra is sitting beside the fire and seems to be doing something with her knife. He sits up to take a closer look, and he nearly chokes on his water. She's taken the knife and has made a series of cuts along her forearm, each one a little deeper than the one before.

"Fucking hell, Syra stop!" He shouts and runs forwards, grabbing the knife out of her now limp hand. Cato has grabbed her by the shoulders and is holding her tightly. She isn't looking at any of them, she's just staring at her feet. Haymitch has woken up again and is now grumbling about the idiot girl.

"Oh my God," Katniss moans and covers her mouth. She rips off one of her sleeves and presses it to the cuts on her arms. She glances at Cato who only shakes her head. Syra's head snaps up and she stares at Finnick.

"Can I go home? I want to go home now please." She says. She sounds like a child asking their parent.

They were right, she's not right in the head. She's lost her mind.

She starts thrashing around in Cato's arms and starts screaming, begging to go home. Finnick quickly covers her mouth, trying to muffle the screams. However, underneath his hand, he can make out a few words.

"I'm tired, Finnick. I'm so tired and I want to go home now!"

But then something loud, very loud, makes them all look up. It sounds like a loud rumble. They wait, everyone tense, even Syra has stopped crying. After a moment nothing has happened, but then something explodes through the trees. A huge, scaly creature that looks to be like a-

"Dinosaur?!" Cato blurts out.

Finnick nods. They've all learned about dinosaurs in school, but for obvious reasons no one has ever really seen one alive. But this thing definitely looks like one. Everyone is standing stock still, refusing to even breathe.

"Haymitch, what do we do?" Katniss asks him, still staring at the huge creature.

"Run!" Haymitch yells, grabbing the water bottles and then bolting down the pathway back to the beach. Finnick and Katniss run after him, followed by Cato who is still dragging Syra. But she stops, ripping her bloodied arms out of his grasp. She looks at him with bloodshot eyes and shakes her head.

"I'm tired, Cato. I'm tired. I don't want to run anymore. I'm tired," she chokes out. She grabs Cato and kisses him, but very gently this time. "Thank you for everything. Thank you for making me feel wanted again. Go now! Go!" she screams at him.

"But-"

"No! Go, please!" she screams and shoves him down the path. Katniss is waiting for him and grabs his hand, making him run the rest of the way. He only looks back once, just as the creature is stopping behind her. She has her eyes closed and she has a smile on her face. He closes his eyes before he hears the powerful sound of the creature's jaw snapping shut.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Hello my lovlies! So I just want to thank everyone for reviewing :) it makes me so happy to read them! I just want to answer one question someone asked, wolfess49ers I believe the username was. No, Cato is not Landon because Syra was in her twenties and Cato is around nineteen now. Alright, thanks guys and enough of my rambling! Enjoy :)**

Cato and Katniss reach the beach, both gasping due to the physical exertion. Katniss is holding on to his shoulder. She looks at him, still breathing hard.

"I'm sorry about her," she says.

"It's okay. I never really knew her but I just felt really bad for how hurt she was." he replies quietly. Katniss nods and leans forwards, kissing him on the cheek. Haymitch and Finnick join them, Finnick is looking behind them, obviously wondering where their other member is. He looks to Katniss for an explanation and she only shakes her head. A moment later, he gets a solid answer when they hear a canon. Finnick clamps his jaw shut, looking down at the ground.

"She wouldn't have lasted long, we all knew that." Haymitch says to Finnick, who simply nods.

A sudden noise makes all of them jump. The leaves are rustling, and then two people tumble out of the shrubbery. It looks to be Beetee and Wiress, the two Tributes from District 3. They're covered in... Snow? However, the white powder soon melts off, leaving the two of them covered in water. Finnick takes a step to go to them but Haymitch grabs him and pulls him to a stop, looking at them suspiciously.

"We need to wait, they could be-" Haymitch begins but Finnick cuts him off almost instantly.

"Look at them! They're freezing and we know them. They're not a threat. Now let go of my arm." Finnick snaps and hauls his arm out of the man's grip. He runs forwards the two tributes, who are visibly shaking and Wiress has turned blue.

"What happened?!" Finnick asks as he drops to his knees in front of them. He takes Wiress's face in his hands and tilts her face to get a better look at her. Her nose has began to bleed.

"There was a sno-snow storm. We were-weren't prep-prepaired for it." Beetee says. He has his arms crossed in front of his chest, and he's trying desperately to stop the cold.

"The waters warm, why don't we put them in there?" Cato suggest, gesturing to the water. Finnick nods. It's not the best way to warm them up, but it looks to be the only option now. They ease the two tributes into the water, Finnick still tending to Wiress and Cato and Katniss with Beetee. It takes a good twenty minutes for their shivering to stop, and during that time Finnick was able to swim up to the Cornucopia and grab some blankets. They get the Wiress and Beetee back on the beach and wrap them up, making sure there's no chance of them getting cold again. Katniss has noticed that Beetee has held on to something the entire time he's been with them.

"What's that?" she asks him.

"Just a coil," he mumbles and fiddles with the copper wire.

"What's it for?" she asks him. He glares at her, annoyed with her questions.

"I think I have a way to kill the other tributes, now please I need to focus." he says and Katniss backs away. Cato is sitting next to Haymitch in the soft sand, still sore from his wounds. Katniss is looking at him, biting her lip.

"I think we should go get medicine," She says out loud. The three men look up at her curiously.

"Now where are we going to find that, sweetheart?" Haymitch asks gruffly.

"There," she says and points to the Cornucopia. Cato rubs his hand over his face and Finnick chews his lip, looking doubtful.

"You know what happened last time we went there..." Finnick says quietly.

"There were three careers last time, now there's only one. We don't need to stay there for very long, just to grab some supplies," she says. She looks at Cato, who is clearly weakened from his battle with Gloss. Haymitch is going through serious withdrawal from alcohol so he could probably use some painkillers because she could bet he has a bad fucking headache. "Guys, we need to do this. Please." she says. They sigh, but eventually nod. Cato goes to stand up, to go with her to the Cornucopia, but Haymitch grabs him and hauls him back to the ground.

"Not a chance, sorry kid, you're not fit to do much of anything at the moment. Katniss and Finnick will go." he says. Cato begins to argue, but Katniss shakes her head as a signal to stop. It's pointless arguing with Haymitch.

"We'll be back soon," she says. She smiles at him, and then turns and joins Finnick. Cato watches her go, still annoyed he couldn't be with her.

Suddenly, a blood curdling scream rips through the air which causes everyone to jump. They look up and see an enormous tidal wave crashing through the jungle. It sweeps away trees, bushes, basically anything in the path. Then it hits the force field surrounding the cornucopia and the water and dirt explodes against the invisible wall.

During this, Haymitch grabs him and pulls him close, putting his lips against his ears. Cato jolts away, startled by the man's move, but then Haymitch hauls him close again.

"Listen, there is a revolution about to happen and Katniss is going to be the symbol of hope. We need to get out of this arena, will you help us?" he asks. Cato notices that Haymitch has his fingers wound around the knife in his belt, obviously ready to use it if Cato says the wrong answer.

Fortunately, Haymitch didn't need to use the dagger.

"Yes, I will do anything you need me to." He answers. Haymitch nods and leans backwards, sprawling out on the sand. He had used the commotion of the tidal wave to cover their conversation. He's a clever man. Finnick and Katniss have almost reached the Cornucopia and Cato sits up, keeping his eyes glued on their figures. Everything is relatively quiet for a few moments, but then his world seems to erupt in chaos. Two tributes, from District 6 and 10 by the looks of it, appear almost out of nowhere on the island. He sees one of them jump on Katniss, their hands wrapped around her neck. The other has is fighting Finnick. Finnick shouts at Katniss, but the person he's fighting shoves him back and makes him fall into the water. Cato is running to the beach, getting ready to swim to the Cornucopia when he hears someone running behind him. He turns around just in time to duck and save himself from getting a knife in his neck. Enobaria stands behind him, looking at him with a malicious grin. Her mouth is covered in blood, and he immediately looks to make sure Haymitch is alive. He is, but he and Beetee are sitting beside something. It takes him a moment to recognize that it's Wiress... Or was Wiress. What remains is a corpse with her throat ripped out.

Enobaria laughs at the shock on his face. She runs her finger over her mouth, getting a good amount of blood on her finger before she puts it in her mouth and sucks it clean. She leans forwards, her right hand clenched around a spear. She looks at him and her next words sound like a hiss "You're next, baby."

She throws herself at him and they both crash into the water. His sword goes flying out of his hand and lands a few feet away from him. He managed to wedge his knee between the two of them, so the spear didn't make contact with his stomach as Enobaria planned, but instead with his bicep. Pain shoots through his arm, but he gets an extra rush of adrenaline and he manages to kick Enobaria off him. He pulls himself through the water and grabs his sword. Enobaria's just about to jump on him, ready to rip his throat out. But his sword makes contact with her stomach first. Her face falls into one of utter shock. He kicks her off, making her slide off the blade. Then he slams the sword down on her chest and a canon goes. If there was anyone in his District who didn't completely hate him before, they sure as hell do now.

He stumbles backwards and lands on the beach. He looks up and to his relief sees Katniss and Finnick running back from the Cornucopia. They have medical packs under their arms and some food. The other two tributes who attacked them are lying dead on the island, most likely Katniss's doing. She reaches him and kneels down, taking his face in her hands. She looks at him worriedly.

"Are you alright?" she asks.

"I just killed my old mentor, Katniss. I've done something unforgivable..." He mumbles. She hugs him tightly.

"We've all done something like that, it's alright." she whispers. She stands up, extending her hand to him. The two of them run to where Finnick, Haymitch and Beetee are surrounding Wiress. Katniss begins to rummage through the medical pack, but Finnick puts his hand over hers and shakes his head.

"It's too late," he mouths. She nods and closes the pack with a heavy heart.

Wiress looks scared and looks up at Beetee. Beetee can't explain away death to her with large numbers or words. She's dying and he knows there's no saving her now. So he just holds her hand tightly.

"It'll be alright. Don't be scared." he whispers. Katniss can see his glasses fogging up from the tears that are now in his eyes, but he swipes them away before anyone else can notice.

The canon goes off thirty seconds later.


	8. Chapter 8

_**Hey guys :) sorry this chapter took me longer than usual to upload. I have a challenge for you guys! I threw in a Pirates of the Caribbean quote in here and I was wondering if any on you will notice :) **_

That night is silent. No one dares make a sound, let alone speak. So many people have died in one day that no one is in the mood to talk. Cato is leaning against a tree because he's on watch tonight. The lack of sleep is beginning to catch up with him, but he knows he has to stay awake, so he pushes away the feeling of tiredness and the fact that his eyes are burning and focuses straight ahead. The anthem begins to blare over the speaker and he quickly looks at the leaves, refusing to see the photos of everyone who died.

It takes a long time for the anthem to stop.

He sighs and leans back, but another booming noise makes him jump. It's so loud that it makes Finnick wake up too. Until now, he had been asleep, not too far away from Cato, and he could swear he hear some muffled sobs coming from the strong District 4 tribute, but Cato knew better than to call him out on it. Finnick mutters a curse and sits up, rubbing his face with his grubby hands.

"Da hell was that?" he mumbles. Cato points to the source of the noise, a place beyond their little resting spot. The sound is a large tree with lightning crashing down on it. Cato realizes he has heard it before, but during the time someone was either dead or dying so none of them bothered to look at it. But now it's so loud and clear that it's impossible to ignore. Beetee's sudden voice causes Finnick to jump out of his skin.

"I need to go there," he says, pointing to the lightning tree.

"Um, why?" Finnick asks, wondering why on earth anyone would want to go near that thing.

"Because I have a way to destroy the other tributes and if you come along to protect me, all of you, than I can protect you. I give you my word," He says, raising his hand. Cato and Finnick look at each other, doubt clouding their eyes, so Beetee continues. "I've seen the most of the remaining tributes around the beach, because of what's going on in the jungle. They'll be on the beach tomorrow to find new supplies. We can have them all killed off before lunchtime."

By this time, Haymitch and Katniss have joined the conversation. Katniss begins to shake her head and open her mouth to argue, but Haymitch quickly grabs her arm as a sign for her to be silent.

"We'll do whatever you want us to do, Beetee." He says to Beetee. The man smiles and then begins cleaning his glasses. Cato notices that he still has one hand on his coil.

* * *

They've walked for what seems like hours. The five of them are practically dead on their feet. Haymitch managed to actually fall asleep while walking, which caused him to fall forwards, right on to Cato. Katniss had suggested for them to all stop and take a breather, but Beetee refused, saying there was no time for rest, so they all continued on. Beetee would have continued on regardless of them, and none of the group fancied getting fried by electricity.

Finnick is walking beside Katniss. She notices he has black bags under his eyes, which are also bloodshot. He looks at her and smirks.

"So, girl on fire, I do hope you're feeling well." he says.

She rolls her eyes and lets out an annoyed sigh. "What are you talking about, Finnick?" she mumbles.

"Didn't your dear district partner announce to the world that you're pregnant?" he says.

A multitude of swear words go streaming through her head. How the hell could she forget that?!

"We're both fine." she snaps at him, trying to cover up her complete stupidity. He's about to come back with some retort when Haymitch's voice interrupts him.

"We're here!"

They all stop and look up at the huge tree, it's nearly twice as large as the others. She takes a step back, admiring the huge thing. Beetee is already wrapping the coil around the trunk, but he begins telling them about his plans anyway.

"Ok, here's what we're going to do. Haymitch and Finnick, I need you to take the coil down to the beach and place it in the wet sand. As for Cato and Katniss, I need you here to protect me. Does everyone agree?" he asks.

"I like it, simple and easy to remember." Haymitch says. He snatches up the coil and he and Finnick begin making their way down to the beach. Katniss scans the invisible field in front of her, the only sign that it is there is the occasional quiver from the constant energy. She stares at the field, until an idea suddenly pops into her mind. She remembers watching the video of Haymitch winning his games. He used the force field to his advantage. She could do the same; but on a higher scale. She could use the lightning to bring down the damn arena. To break the Capitol. She finds herself grinning, but then the grin falls as she thinks of her family back home. They'd be killed for her pulling a stunt like this.

No, she tells herself firmly. Gale would protect them. He'd take them away before any harm could fall on them.

So with that confirmation in her mind, she reaches over and pulls Cato close. He seems surprised and raises his eyebrows. She stands on the tip of her toes so she can put her lips close to her ear.

"We can bring it down. All of it! The arena! We can do it, Cato! Stop the Games once and for all!" she whispers. She sounds almost excited. Cato swallows hard, processing her words. But then he takes a step back and shakes his head.

"That won't stop them, Katniss. Nothing will ever stop them. This will get us all killed and your family too! This wouldn't work!" he says angrily. She should fucking know better.

"Yes it would!" she says, just as angry as he is. A sudden rumble causes them both to look upwards. The black clouds are starting to form above them. Shit, the lightning is starting sooner than they thought it would. Katniss looks back at Cato, knowing it's now or never. She remembers that Cato once told her the easiest way to knock someone out is to hit them in this one place in the jaw. At the time, he never dreamed she would use it on him. She has once chance, if she fails she better run really fast because he's going to be pissed.

"Cato," she says, raising her bow in the air. He takes his eyes off the black clouds and looks at her. It takes him a second to realize what she's doing, but she's just a little faster than him. She brings her bow down so fast on his jaw that she hears a crack. His neck snaps to the side and he crumples to the ground.

Shit, that really does work.

"I'm sorry," she whispers then turns around and goes to the tree. Beetee has watched the entire time and now stares at her like she's insane. She raises her leg and kicks him hard in the stomach, knocking him out of the way. She grabs the end of the coil, Beetee has left a considerable amount. He must have planned to tuck it in at the last minute. She wraps it around the arrowhead and ties it quickly. She hears Haymitch screaming at her to stop, but she knows it's too late for that. She sees the brim of white against the black cloud, and a moment later the lightning strikes the tree. And she release the arrow. The sheer force of the electricity causes her to fly back. She sees that the arrow has hit the force field, causing an explosion of fire. She hits the ground, but her head comes in contact with something hard and sharp, and the world goes black within a few seconds.

* * *

A sharp pain in her arm causes her to jolt awake. She sees Finnick crouching beside her. He's covered in burns and cuts, which must have been a result of the explosion.

"Welcome back, girl on fire." He mutters. He's wrapping a white bandage around her forearm, which is where the pain is coming from. It takes her a second to remember that she once had a tracker there, but she assumes he's cut it out. She notices he has a matching bandage on his own arm.

"What happened?" she mumbles. She feels groggy and disoriented and when she sits up, he quickly pushes her back to the ground.

"You destroyed the arena. But, luckily, someone anticipated that something like this would happen so he was prepared so he was able to get us out." he responds as he finishes wrapping the bandage around her arm. It's only then does she notice that she is no longer in the arena; instead they're in a Hovercraft. Then reality hits her like a ton of bricks.

"Wait, who did he get out?!" she asks him, her voice rising as she begins to realize what she did.

"Calm down! He was able to get you, me, Beetee, Haymitch and Cato." Finnick answer, pushing her back on to the ground.

"Where are they?" she asks. Finnick bites his lip, unsure whether he should answer, but Katniss glares at him so he finally tells her.

"Beetee and Haymitch are up there," he says and points to the room behind them. Then he looks back and points behind her. "And Cato is back there." She jumps and looks behind her, only to see Cato lying motionless behind her.

"He was on his feet when we got there, but then he got caught under a piece of metal. Katniss, um, his face got kind of... Burned." he says. Katniss quickly goes to her friend, but her heart stops when she gets to his side. One of the first things Katniss noticed about Cato was his flawless, beautiful face. That's what everyone noticed, but now the entire left side of his face has been eaten away by fire. His pale skin has turned black and large red welts and blood cover his eyebrow and down to his ear. Katniss covers her mouth with her hand, the smell of his burned skin making her stomach flip.

"They may be able to repair it, where we're going... But, Katniss, this is the worst burn I've ever seen. He may always be scarred." Finnick says quietly. He's staring at Cato, pity written clearly across his face.

Katniss can't take her eyes off Cato's now charcoal colored skin and there's only two things going through her mind.

_This is my fault, this is all my fault, he's mutilated because of me. _

_He'll never forgive me. _


	9. Chapter 9

_**Hello everyone :) so thanks to everyone who has been reading this far! So this story will be wrapping up soon, the ending might be the next chapter or the one after it. Hope you guys enjoy xo**_

The first thing he notices when his eyes open is the harsh light that begins to make his pupils burn. His eyelids feel so heavy, his stomach is in knots and there's a dull, throbbing pain through the left side of his face. He hesitantly lifts his hand up, even his damn arm feels heavy, and touches his face. The sudden pain that erupts from the mere touch of his fingers made him jump and groan.

"I'm so sorry."

He looks over and sees Katniss sitting beside him. She has large, dark bags under her eyes, and they're rimmed with red. Her olive skin looks waxy and pale and her hair hangs around her face in greasy waves. The room they're in is a dull grey, washed out with the harsh light coming from the lamps.

"What the hell happened..." he mumbles as he tries to sit up, but his body is so weak he crashes back on to the bed.

"I took down the arena, Cato. They managed to get us out but... Your face is um..." She trails off, at a loss for words. She's staring at him with pity written across her face.

Cato has become fully alert now. What does she mean about his face...? The pain... No, he can't be hurt, not there. He notices a silver tray on the table beside him. It's holding some water and pills but he quickly swipes them off and grabs the tray, holding it up to his face. His reflection makes his stomach churn. Half is face has been burned to shit. They used some skin grafts to patch up the worst of the burns, but the rest of his skin is blood-red and swollen. The doctors have put some sort of clear mask over half his face, trying desperately to keep his skin from falling off his face.

He's staring into the silver tray, almost hoping if he stares long enough the reflection will change back to how he used to look. After a few more minutes, he realizes that's not going to happen. He feels his blood boil in anger and he throws the tray across the room and it crashes against the wall in a loud clatter. Katniss jumps at the loud noise. She stares at him with regret filling her grey eyes. She tries to speak but Cato doesn't want to hear what she has to say.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry-"

"I told you to wait! I told you to fucking wait for Haymitch! He would've come up with a plan that didn't involve half my fucking face being burned off!" he shouts at her. Katniss jumps off the chair and stares at him, her tired eyes brimming with tears.

"I'm sorry, Cato!" she screams at him.

"That's all you can say isn't it!" he roars at her. By now three people have entered the room. One is Haymitch, the other is a tall teenage boy who goes to Katniss and shoves her behind him. The last is a man he doesn't know. He is still on the bed, because his body is so weakened he can barely manage to shout anymore. Haymitch has run over to his side and has jabbed something sharp into his shoulder. Almost immediately he begins feeling dizzy and his eyes begin to slide close. The last thing he manages to see is Katniss staring at him. Her thin arms are wrapped around her body and she's shaking.

She doesn't look strong anymore.

* * *

Finnick is sitting on his bed with a piece of rope in his hands. He's tied into a knot, then untied it about fifteen times. Today has been a rough day for him. The only thing that has been on his mind is Annie. During the Games, he managed to push her away from his mind to help him stay focused; but hell when the memories came back, they came back with a vengeance. What he remembers most is how he'd sit and hold her during those small hours of the night, when nightmares would keep her awake and she'd cry. He'd just hold her and she would hold on to him like he was her lifeline, then she'd start talking to him with incomplete sentences, and then just trail off before finishing. She'd just stare at the wall, her sea green eyes vacant. It took him a little while to bring her back to reality when she had fits like that.

Finnick drops the rope on to the bed and rubs his face with his hands. He knows he shouldn't be thinking about Annie because she's been dead for seven months. That day was the worst day of his life. Annie had wandered off to a cliff near the Victor's Village. She was having one of her fits, so she didn't really know what she was doing. At the time, Finnick had been working out because he was having a bad day as well. There were just too many memories of dead children clouding his mind. He was returning home when he heard the screaming. He ran over to the cliff and looks down. He sees her brown hair, now made black from blood and water, and the purple of the silk dress she was wearing earlier.

He noticed that he was already running down the trail of the cliff. His one thought is getting to her. When he does reach her, the first thing he notices is the amount of blood gushing from her head. He drops to his knees and scoops up her frail body, cradling her against his chest. He's sobbing.

It takes him an hour to let her go. It was Mags who had to pull him away from her.

A knock at the door makes him jump out of the memory. He turns and chokes out words. "Come in."

Haymitch opens the door and pokes his head around frame. He frowns at the sight of Finnick, who's clearly upset.

"Christ, everyone's a fucking mess today." he mutters and walks in, slamming the door behind him. He leans against it, crossing his arms over his chest. There are bags under his eyes and his hair has turned greasy and thin. Finnick wonders when's the last time he took a shower. They arrived here over a week ago, but they've all been so busy planning the revolution that there's barely time for sleep, so showering is not high on the to do list.

Haymitch looks at the rope in Finnick's hands, then the back at Finnick's face then down at the rope again. He walks over and sits down, letting out a sigh as he does so.

"Bad day, huh?" he asks.

Finnick doesn't speak, just nods and then returns to tying his knot. Haymitch reaches forwards and covers Finnick's hands with his own. He tightens his grip on Finnick's now shaking hands.

"We've all lost people, Finn. But I know what you went through was the worst because you though you'd have her forever. I'm sorry, but we have bigger problems to worry about now," Haymitch says softly. Finnick nods and releases the rope, letting it drop to the floor and Haymitch continues talking. "Cato's woken up, but he's really angry about what's happened. He's dangerous and I don't trust him," he growls. His tone is definitely not soft now.

Finnick looks at him, doubt clouding his eyes. "I trust him," he tells Haymitch, who only scoffs in response so Finnick says something else. "Katniss trusts him and he would protect her, even if he dies doing it. Not that she needs much protection when she has a bow, but you know what I mean."

"Not now he won't. I was listening when he woke up, I'm pretty sure he blames her for what happened to his face. He'll hate her." Haymitch says gruffly.

"Well, if he does do that, what do you intend to do about it?" Finnick asks him.

Haymitch looks at him, his grey eyes harsh and cold. "I will kill him."

* * *

Katniss sits with Prim wrapped in her arms. She's burying her face into her sisters golden hair, breathing in her familiar fragrance. She's missed Prim so much. Their mother is sitting beside him, her fingers hovering over Katniss's arm, as if she wants to reach out and embrace her daughter. But she snatches away her hand and looks at the ground. She's too scared of being rejected by Katniss again. Gale is sitting on the chair opposite the bed, staring at the sight of the broken family. They're even worse now, because District 12 has been destroyed and now is nothing more than ash and rubble, so they have almost nothing.

"Is Cato ok, Katniss?" Prim asks quietly. Prim knows Cato because of how often Katniss talked about him and he even sent Prim a birthday present. It was a lovely silver pendant with an aquamarine stone in the middle. Prim never takes it off and Katniss can feel the smoothness of the silver under Prim's shirt.

"He will be, he just needs a little more time, that's all." Katniss responds and hugs her sister closer to her body.

"Katniss?" Prim says quietly.

"Yes?"

"What's going to happen to us?" Prim asks.

Katniss bites her lip, unsure of what to say. As soon as they arrived at District 13, Haymitch dragged Katniss into a council meeting where she was told, rather bluntly, that she is going to be the Mockingjay for the rebellion. She'll be the symbol of hope; a flame in the dark. At first she was mortified with the prospect of being the one people look to for guidance. But she knew in the end that this was bigger than her personal fears so she knew she had no choice but to agree. The only thing that would make it easier is if Cato was on her side, but she doesn't know if he is anymore. She can't blame him because she's the reason his face is destroyed.

But she can't focus on that now. She has a job to do, and she will fucking do it. She will bring down Snow, the Capitol, everything. She will do it for the countless children who would be killed in the Games if they were to continue. She will do what leaders do; she will lead. They will destroy the Capitol.

She let's go of Prim, kissing her on the head as the little girl slides out of her arms. Katniss stands up and leaves the room, ignoring the quizzical looks from her mother and Gale. She goes walks quietly through the hallways, trying her best to not draw any attention to herself. She is practically hugging the wall to try to hide in the shadows. It doesn't take her long to get to the room she was searching for, considering the fact she's barely left it for the past week. She opens the door and slips inside. It's mostly dark, except for that one small lamp in the corner of the room which rests on a metal table. She walks towards the bed, relaxing at the sight of his figure. He is on his side so she's hoping he's asleep.

"I know it's you, Katniss."

His sudden voice makes her jump. She swallows and bites her lip, wondering if she should have come here at all. Cato sits up and looks at her. The dim light from the lamp illuminates the damage on the left side of his face. He sees that she's staring so he quickly looks away.

"I'm sorry for how I acted earlier. I was just tired and-"

"Stop it. You had every right to be mad and you still do, but I still need to ask you something," she interrupts. She walks over to him and sits on the edge of her bed. He's still looking at the floor. Katniss leans forwards and touches his shoulder gingerly with her fingers. "Look at me, Cato. They want me to be the-"

"Mockingjay, I know. Haymitch told me when we were in the arena." Cato interrupts.

"I want you to be on my side for this. Please." she tells him.

He finally turns and looks at her. A shadow is covering the burned side of his face. "I will always be on your side, sparky, but fuck you owe me big."

Katniss smirks and she throws her arms around his shoulder. Cato grimaces, because he was still burned pretty badly around his torso, but he just ignores the pain and hugs her back.

So they'll be going to war against the Capitol... And he thought that fighting in the arena was hard.


	10. Chapter 10

_**A/N: Hi everyone! So this is it! Thanks to all of you who have read this whole thing! :D I know I didn't write the battle or what happened during those few months in District 13, but in all fairness we all knew what happened so I didn't think you guys wanted to reread it. However, I will say a few things just to make it crystal clear! So, Katniss became the Mockingjay with Cato at her side (duh) and they basically did the same thing as they did in the book, like the video messages and such. But one thing I needed to change was Prim and Finnick dying! I was never okay with that in the book so they're living in this #sorrynotsorry. Snow was killed by Katniss when they went to the fight at the Capitol (which they won) and Cato has killed president Coin because he and Katniss didn't trust her. He was imprisoned but Haymitch was able to save his neck by declaring him to have been taken over by insanity at the time and now he is waiting to be relocated to another District. So now, basically the entire clan is back in District 13 :) Also, this first bit of this chapter is almost entirely Prim's POV because I've always believed she was a very important character and if she was given the chance to live I think she would have been one of those people who really sees everything, you know what I mean? So yeah, if you're wondering why it's told from her perspective that's why. **_

_**On a more random note, I have somethings I wanted to tell you guys that I forgot to add into the last chapter! One is that I was listening to Fragile Bird by City and Colour and it made me think of Finn and Annie /3 and the second was, for any of you Game of Thrones viewers, I got the idea for Cato's burned face from the character of Sandor (the Hound). Ok, enough of my crazy long authors note. Enjoy guys! **_

_Dear diary,_

_I know I haven't written in you for a while, but I have some things to tell you. The last thing I wrote was that we came here to District 13 because our home was destroyed. I can't believe it's been seven months since that day! We actually just came back from District 12. Well, what's left of it. Katniss wanted to go back to see if the picture of dad was still there but it wasn't, which made her sad. _

_Cato and Gale went with us. I'm pretty sure they don't like each other very much, and I even heard Gale make fun of Cato's scar. I couldn't believe it! He said it to mom, but she got really angry at him because of it. Some of the little kids are scared of him and that makes him sad. He tries not to show it, but I know that he is. _

_Everyone is still trying to recover from the battle at the Capitol. It's been hard on everyone, especially Katniss, she was the Mockingjay after all. She wouldn't tell me everything that happened because she said I was too young. Did I tell you I was in the hospital at the time? Well, I was. Before the fight at the Capitol, I was helping the other doctors, but one day when we were out some bombs went off. I didn't even realize they were there, which was so stupid of me. Cato did though. He got me out- and I will always be indebted to him because if he wasn't there that day, than I wouldn't be here today. _

_Anyway, I should really be packing. Mom and I are going to go to District 11 because we've heard that the people there are sick and a lot are dying. Thanks for listening, diary. I'll write soon._

Prim closes the book and holds it tightly in her hands. Her mother had gotten her this diary because she was worried about Prim bottling up her emotions. She stands up, taking the book with her and throwing it into the small bag that has her belongings. Well, that's it. She's ready to go to District 11. However, before she goes, she has a few stops to make.

She grabs a handful of sugar cubes- she keeps them in a jar beside her bed- and goes through the steely grey hallways until she reaches her desired room. She opens the door quietly and peeks in to find it's one resident; Finnick Odair.

Finnick survived the war... Well, most of him did. When he was fighting, the Capitol decided to release their lizard Mutts against them as a defense. Finnick lost his left leg because of them. When the lizards would bite, their fangs would release a poison which would work it's way up to the victims heart and eventually cause it to stop. Because of this, the only way to save Finn when he got bitten was to cut off his leg. Cato held him down while Katniss sawed off his leg.

Prim walks in and closes the door behind her. The sugar cubes are still in her hand but the heat from her skin are causing them to crumble. She walks to Finnick, who's in his wheelchair, and kneels beside him. He glances at her and a small smile appears on his lips.

"Hey, Rosie."

"Hi, Finn." she responds with a smile. She extends her hand out and waits for him to open his fingers. When he does she lets the sugar cubes drop into his palm, one by one. "Mom and I have to go away for a while. I promise I'll keep in touch and I'll tell Katniss where I keep the sugar cubes. Will you be alright?" she asks him. Finnick pops a sugar cube into his mouth and smiles again at her.

"Don't worry about me, little rose. I'll be fine."

* * *

The next stop she makes is to Cato. He's still being held as a prisoner for killing President Coin, but she hopes he'll be released soon. The cell they're holding him in is small and cramped, much too tiny for the large boy. No, not a boy anymore. He's a man now.

She walks toward him and gently knocks against the glass wall separating them. He glances up and she smiles at him. He stands and goes to the glass wall. He raises his arm and leans against the wall, taking in the sight of the little girl. His scar has turned into a flesh color now, but despite the destroyed skin, his icy blue eyes are still managing to shine.

"Mom and I have to go away for a while to District 11. I just wanted to say goodbye before I left." she says quietly.

"Katniss told me you were leaving. Good luck but please be careful." he says quietly.

Prim nods. She begins toying with her hands and waits for a moment before answering. "I'll be careful. Will you be alright?" she asks him quietly.

He snorts and straightens to his full height. "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine."

* * *

Saying goodbye to her sister was the worst. She found Katniss sprawled out on her bed, her hair a tangled mess around her shoulders and her lumpy, grey clothes now have a bit of an odor. Prim shakes her shoulder to wake her up. Katniss jumps and looks up at her young sister, trying to make her grey eyes focus. Then she remembers Prim is going to be leaving her. She sits up and wraps her arms around her fair sister immediately. They don't say goodbye, they hate saying goodbye to each other. So instead, Prim asks her a question.

"Will you be alright?"

"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine." Katniss whispers.

Prim bites her lip and hugs her sister tighter. The same answer from three different people. I'll be fine is all she seems to hear these days.

Once Katniss unravels herself from their embrace, Prim leaves. She finds her mother and board the Hovercraft. She sits on the cold steel seats and thinks about the people she has just visited. What will happen to them? Will they be able to pick themselves up and continue their lives? Or will they just commit suicide like some other people decided to do. Will they give into their sadness and their misery like so many others have?

Prim begins fiddling with the hem of her dress again.

"Please let them be safe. Please protect them," she prays quietly.

* * *

It's been a week since Prim left and Cato has finally found out where he is to be sent to live out the rest of his life. And that place is District 12. When Katniss hears the news she comes barging through the guards and goes straight to his cell. He's lying on his cot, trying to get some rest before his journey to 12, but Katniss bangs on the glass wall, causing him to jolt awake and then tumble off the small cot.

"For fuck sakes," he mutters and looks up to see who's stupid enough to be bothering him. But then he sees the familiar dark hair and grey eyes. He stands up and goes to the wall, pressing his hand against the glass. "What are you doing here?" he asks her softly.

She's looking at him with determination in her eyes. "I'm going with you."

"What?" he asks, surprised at her remark.

"I'm going with you to 12. It's my home anyway but I want to go with you." she tells him.

"Katniss, you don't have to do this-"

"No. I'm going with you because... Because I think I love you, Cato. And you love me too. They won't seperate us, not now. Not after everything we've been through."

Cato knows there's no point in arguing and he doesn't want to. Because she's right; he does love her. He's loved her for a long time.

* * *

Seven years later

Cato stands on the porch of his home. The sun is rising and the smell in the air is that of dew and wildflowers. It's been five years since he's arrived at District 12 with Katniss and he can say, for once in his life, he feels... Happy. Despite everything that has happened to him, he still feels happy. The reasons for his happiness are in the house. Katniss, his beautiful Katniss, who has never left his side since they've arrived here. She even saw him break down-which had been one of his biggest fears- and she just held him while he sobbed. She didn't leave him, she didn't mock him. She just held him and kissed him.

He turns around and walks back into the house, trying his best to be as silent as possible, because there's something else in his life that is bring him great joy and it's asleep upstairs. It's their baby girl named Zasha. Cato carefully makes his way up the stairs to the two-year olds room. He can hear her giggling. He opens the door and finds the child awake and sitting up in her crib. He walks over to her and scoops her up in his strong arms. She giggles again and nestles into the crook of his neck.

When Katniss first discovered she was pregnant, she wanted to get rid of the baby immediately. She didn't want anything to do with raising a kid. How was she supposed to do it if she couldn't even take care of herself? Cato's begs meant nothing to her and just went in one ear and out the other. He desperately wanted the baby, but in the end he knew it should be her choice. Surprisingly, it was Haymitch, who had moved back to 12 as well, that convinced her to keep the baby. He sat her down and told her that he knew that she was scared, but they all needed something to bring them back to life, including her, and this baby could be the way to do it. And, for once, Katniss actually listened to her mentor. They even named the baby after Haymitch's mother.

Cato presses his lips to Zasha's forehead and the baby reaches up and presses her soft hand directly on to Cato's scarred skin. The scar doesn't scare her at all, like it doesn't scare her mother. Cato carries the baby out of the room and to the room her shares with Katniss. The latter is asleep on the bed, her wild hair covering the entire pillow so no white is visible. The blanket covers her body, but can't hide her now growing stomach. She found out she was pregnant again about three months ago. Once again, it took another talk from Haymitch to convince her to keep the child because she was just as scared as the first time. She's a tough woman though, so she can handle this pregnancy better than the first one.

Cato hears the door downstairs open and then soft footsteps come up the stairs. A moment later Prim comes into the room. She's nineteen now and has grown into a beautiful woman. She has her hair braided into a bun and her blue eyes shine against her pale skin. She smiles at the sight of her sleeping sister, then goes and collects her niece into her arms.

"Mom's downstairs. I'm going to bring Zasha to her." she whispers to Cato. He nods and kisses his child before Prim caries her downstairs.

Cato sits back and looks over at Katniss beside him. Everyday he's amazed that, despite everything she's been through, she's survived and continues to fight everyday. Cato leans down and presses his lip to her cheek.

"I love you." he whispers.

"I love you too," she responds. He didn't expect to hear an answer from her, but it makes him smile regardless.

He turns his body so he's enveloping her. He wraps his arm around her and she leans back into his embrace. Last night, neither of them had a nightmare so it was a good night. Cato rests his chin on her shoulder, and that's when something catches his attention. A letter on her nightstand.

"Who's that from?" he asks her.

She smiles before answering. "It's from Finn. He got married a few weeks back to a woman named Astrid. He said he was sorry that he couldn't have us come, but it was just the two of them. He said they'll come visit soon. Here's a picture of them." She reaches over and takes a small photo from the table and hands it to him. The photo shows Finn in his wheelchair and a beautiful woman beside him. She's grinning and has her arms wrapped around his shoulders. She has soft brown eyes and long blonde hair that tumbles over Finnick's shoulders. Finnick has his eyes closed and his face turned towards her, as if he was about to kiss her but then the photo was taken, causing him to stop. Cato wonders if he has his eyes closed because he could pretend the woman was Annie instead of Astrid.

He quickly pushes away the thought and instead hopes that Finn is generally happy with Astrid. He deserves someone to love, and who loves him back. After the accident, Cato was worried Finn would have completely withdrawn into himself after his accident and that he would never have allowed anyone to become close to him again. Maybe it was this woman who had drawn him back into life.

Cato puts the picture back on the night stand and buries his face into the crook of her neck. Her skin feels so soft against his scar. He's still not comfortable with the scar, how can anyone be comfortable having that thing on their face? But he's learned to deal with it.

He still can't believe that, despite all the odds, they've survived. Finnick has found love again, Haymitch has been able to cut back his drinking- only slightly but that's a start- because of Zasha, who he adores and now he's once again living beside them in District 12. Katniss has embraced her role as a mother and has managed to make her family her top priority. Prim has become a doctor and along with her mother, she travels the Districts helping anyone who needs them.

But...

Along with the good, there's always bad. Finnick can never walk again. Cato and Katniss are plagued with nightmares and sometimes break down for no reason. It happened the last week to him. He was just chopping an onion, but then memories of using a knife to kill someone hit him like a train and Katniss found on the floor, the knife still in his hand. He had cut himself to make the memories stop. Sometimes he still thinks of Syra, who was so damaged and beyond repair no one could have saved her. Despite knowing this, he still finds himself thinking of some way he could have helped.

When he gets like this, he has to remember what Haymitch once told him...

_"We've had a fucking bad life, kid. I'm not going to sugar coat this shit and say you'll be able to stop having nightmares or fits, 'cause you won't. But you need to stop beating yourself up over little things you can't change or couldn't have prevented. Yeah, Syra died but you couldn't have saved her anyway because she would have eventually killed herself. You couldn't have stopped Finnick from losing his leg. You can't stop Katniss from having nightmares and fits like you. You couldn't have stopped anything like that. But think of all the things you have done. You saved Prim, Katniss and Finnick. You have that little girl to take care of now and you'll do a good job. Listen to me, kid. We'll be okay now. We'll be okay."_

Yes, they will be okay now. They can not only survive- but live. And maybe, just maybe, they'll be one day when they won't cry because they have a knife in their hands, or drink until they're passed out or wake up in the middle of the night because of nightmares. Maybe one day they will no longer have that dull, empty feeling in their chest that is heavy and makes it hard to breathe.

Cato knows that, until that day, that even if he gets that horrible empty feeling in his chest, or that if the thought of using the knife he's holding to cut his wrists, he can go hug Katniss or hold his baby to remind him that not everything is darkness and that there's always something to smile about if you look hard enough, whether that be a baby, the person you love or, simply, a flower growing amongst rubble of the graveyard.

* * *

"Deep in the meadow, hidden far away

A cloak of leaves, a moonbeam ray

Forget your woes and let your troubles lay

And when it's morning again, they'll wash away

Here it's safe, here it's warm

Here the daisies guard you from every harm

Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true

Here is the place where I love you."

― Suzanne Collins


End file.
